Final Fantasy V: The Novel
by Celes Chere
Summary: As a dying planet draws its final breath, the wind calls upon a wandering soul to seek his destiny. His preordained encounter with a devoted daughter, a hopeful warrior, and a courageous pirate gives birth to a new crystal legend - one that spans the bounds of time, space, and magic. (A novelization of Final Fantasy V for iOS.)
1. When the Wind Calls

Final Fantasy V: The Novel

Compilation & Additional Scenarios: Celes Chere

Original Characters/Story/Scenario: SquareEnix

* * *

 _Fire. Water. Wind. Earth._

 _The peace and prosperity of the world is thanks to the power of these crystals. However...that power is nearing its limit._

 _Not far off is the day when the wind slows...the water stills..._

 _…and the earth trembles and quakes..._

 _…and yet, everyone remains blissfully unaware..._

 _…and the grave secret hidden within the crystals remains untold..._

* * *

1: When the Wind Calls

Alexander Highwind Tycoon didn't know quite how long he had been standing on the northernmost terrace of Castle Tycoon when the hurried footsteps rang out behind him, shattering the peace that had just begun to settle into his marrow. His azure steel gauntlet-clad forearms were resting comfortably on the parapet as he wordlessly observed the spread of the kingdom before him – he still had a few precious moments before the interloper would arrive, based on what he knew about the length of her stride and the fact that she would be startled, exhausted and stumbling her way through the tower that rose above him – early mornings had never been her strength. She would have been surprised upon waking that he had decided to leave earlier than he had originally communicated: He had done that on purpose for this very reason, but had somehow managed to still be foiled – perhaps one of the well-intentioned maids had blabbed when they serviced his room that morning and had found it empty.

He drank in the rolling stretches of forest were being bathed in a blanket of pink fluorescence, and in the very farthest distance where the sea collided with the bounty of his realm, a rise of snow-topped mountain peaks pierced the horizon – their alabaster shrouds visible even on the hottest of their summer days, of which this one was surely gearing up to be among their ranks, based on the pool of sweat that had already soaked his brow throughout the inception of the dawn.

A meager wind was listlessly toying with his periwinkle floor-length cloak along the dust-ridden stone walkway, and the leather wings affixed to each side of his gold-plated and platinum helmet barely fluttered as he rose to his full height. Turning to the wind drake sleeping next to him, a divine specimen with scales of violet that shone with the brilliance of amethysts in pure moonlight and viridian mainsails that spread the length of three grown men each, he let out a low whistle, and the creature raised his head, blinking the sleep out of its piercing yellow eyes.

"It's time, Hiryu," King Tycoon commanded in his resonating alto. Hiryu the wind drake clicked his ivory claws against the terrace floor as he stretched his limbs, his seven foot long tail swinging behind him anxiously like a cat's.

 _Even Hiryu can sense something is wrong…_ Tycoon shook his head, reaching up to slide his crystal-plated visor shut over his face for the flight. When the visor was engaged, one could only make out the tapered slope of his long nose, many times broken, and the tidy trim of his chestnut boxed beard that framed a strong, unrelenting chin.

"Father!" a voice burst out behind him, and the clatter of footsteps came to a sudden halt. "Do you really have to go?"

The king spun around, his eyes adjusting to the sun-dimming properties of his visor as he took in the petite slip of a figure before him – a young woman aged nineteen years that was a full foot shorter than him in height, her shoulder-length platinum pink hair sloppily tied back from her face with what looked like the first item she could find: a tattered ribbon that clearly had been unlaced from one of the sleeves of her cotton shift nightdress, probably tied on as she fled down the castle halls. Dark circles were settled in her ivory complexion beneath a pair of wide-set jade eyes, and her delicate, heart-shaped lips were pressed together in a thin line of disapproval.

As expected, his daughter was not very happy with him.

"You know I do, dear," Tycoon shook his head. "And I need _you_ to protect the castle. Under no circumstances are you to follow me, do you understand?"

She lowered her gaze, her fists clenching at her sides, which he pretended not to notice. "But, Father..."

He held up his hand to silence her; much to his surprise, she actually complied. "My dearest daughter…something is wrong with the wind... I must go to the Wind Shrine to make certain nothing's happened to the crystal. This journey is one that is not optional, and time is of the essence."

She nodded slowly, wrapping her arms around herself as she cast her gaze toward Hiryu, who was staring at her curiously, as if waiting for her to cut the chit-chat and hop on along with the king.

"Yes...I've noticed it as well. But, to go alone is-"

"Lenna," his voice, no matter how stern in his lectures, always melted into a buttery cadence when her name fell from his lips – she was his most treasured relic, and everyone within a thirty-mile radius of the kingdom of Tycoon knew that fact well. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Have _faith_."

Lenna knew that was the end of the discussion, and said no more – his trademark motto had been long engrained into her since childhood, and she oftentimes found herself muttering it under her breath when she was faced with a particularly vexing challenge. When all seemed to be at a loss, he needed only to remind her of those words, and she somehow always managed to find her way back to the light shortly after. Tycoon climbed onto Hiryu's back, and the wind drake began beating his wings to initiate liftoff even before Tycoon had settled in, seemingly anxious to get going.

Lenna raised her hand high in the air, waving as she pushed herself as high as she could go on her bare toes. The king looked over his shoulder as Hiryu launched himself over the parapet, flicking his visor back up as his stone-gray gaze locked with hers.

 _Lenna…no matter what comes of this mission…you must always remember who you are. You are the Crown Princess of Tycoon, the future heiress of the throne, and by birthright, the protector of the Crystal of Wind…_

 _If…if something should ever happen to me…you must…_

* * *

"Yarg! Pass me another jug of that rum, would ya?"

"It's near six in the morning, lad! Are you just startin' for the day, or carryin' on from last night?"

"Arr…does it matter?"

"N'ARRRR!"

A raucous round of laughter erupted from the rear of the ship as its captain lifted his head warily, his eyes snapping open upon conclusion of the twisted nightmare he had just experienced, coincidentally punctuated by the obnoxious cackling that was occurring mere yards away. He clenched his jaw as a throbbing pain exploded in his temples – just exactly how much had he imbibed the night before? He couldn't seem to remember drinking _that_ much, but he certainly had a helluva hangover that seemed to prove otherwise.

A queer, fading cry shrilled in the skies above, and he lifted his head, blowing matted locks of hair the color of crushed violets out of his clear, seafoam green eyes that were suspiciously absent of any ruptured blood vessels which normally accompanied a hard night of partying. He lifted a hand to his face to shield his eyes from the glare of the rising sun that was blooming over the sea's horizon, temporarily dying the choppy water the same color as freshly-spilled blood.

It was right away that he noticed the stilling ripple of the sails directly above his line of vision – it was over in such a flash that he had barely registered it – but the full billow of the sun-stained, tawny linen had suddenly and thoroughly deflated, the sail flopping impotently against the mast like a popped balloon.

"The wind just...stopped..." he murmured to himself. "…What's going on here?" A few moments later, the rest of his companions caught on to the strange phenomenon, and a chorus of surprised cries perforated the dawn.

* * *

"I've got to hurry!" the man huffed as he made one last check of the glowing indigo crystals embedded in the cavern wall, pressing his palm to its face to ensure the proper amount of heat was rising from its surface. If he was even a single degree off, the entire chemical reaction he had concocted could go haywire, and then…

Well, he didn't want to think about what that might mean.

…Maybe he should had brought his granddaughter along after all – she was always better at this kind of precise, careful stuff. "Delicate matters", she would jokingly call such chores after he inevitably screwed something up, and like magic, she would swoop in to save the day. She always seemed to somehow know he was in trouble, the little scamp – it simultaneously filled him with pride and embarrassment that she was always seemingly far more reliable than he.

But her being by his side at that moment was nothing but wishful thinking – no, it had already been far, far too late before he had realized something wasn't right…

He had grown too lax, too complacent…and now…

He backed away from the crystal slowly, taking in his surroundings for the last time before the teleport pad ignited in a sea of blue behind him, filling the cavern with an otherworldly light that made his eyes water. Counting to three under his breath, he clenched his eyes shut, forcing himself to leap into the teleporter. As the ground fell away beneath him, he felt a warm rush of air tickle his ear lobe, and heard her bell-like laughter echoing maddeningly over and over in his mind…

 _Grandpa…!_

* * *

Lenna flicked the last of her tears away from her face, taking a deep breath as she stretched her hands in the air behind her head, forcing an obnoxious yawn that she would normally never dare to do in polite company. But since she was now totally and utterly alone, and had spent the last hour bawling her eyes out…she figured she deserved a moment of private vulgarity, at the very least. Climbing to her feet, she took one last long look over the breathtaking view that spilled beneath her like overturned watercolor paints, pressing her fingers to her lips.

 _I know that Father is doing what is right...it's all thanks to him that Tycoon has been able to revel in such prosperity for so long – there has never been a time in my life that I have not known peace, and it's because of his relentless dedication to the crystals…_

 _Even so...I wish he didn't feel as if he needed to do things alone. I wish…_

A shiver suddenly ran down her spine, and Lenna silenced her mental pity party, her eyes widening as she took a few hesitant steps forward, bare feet slapping against the rapidly-heating stone beneath. At first, she couldn't exactly pinpoint what was wrong – there had been no cries coming from the castle, or any other signs of sudden onset trauma, like fire, smoke or the crash of steel. The land before her had not suddenly collapsed beneath a landslide, or had become ravaged in storm – she couldn't even make out any herds of monsters that liked to occasionally emerge from the western forests and terrorize nearby villages.

And that was when it hit her – the eerie _stillness_ of it all. She gingerly licked the tip of her finger, blinking as she raised her hand in the air.

There was nothing. As she shakily drew breath, a dusty, moldy taste drowned her tongue – almost as if she had swallowed something stale.

 _The wind's_ ** _stopped_** _._

 _...Father!_

* * *

Before he even had a chance to unbar the mythril-carved double doors, Tycoon saw the seizing light leaking through the cracks in the dirt-streaked, vine-strangled marble walls, staining the chipped and crumbling tiles laid at his feet with disfigured pulses of dancing luminescence. Cursing under his breath, he heaved the rotted wood barricade out of his way, sending it to the floor in a terrific crash as he burst through the doors.

"What in blazes...!?"

The Crystal of Wind, a brilliantly-polished tetragonal jewel imbued with the just the slightest hint of a cerulean sheen, was spinning wildly in place upon its throne: a vine-engulfed, mirror-plated dais that had long ago lost its patina and was now mottled with tarnish. A piercing light was shining through the crystal's core, bathing the surrounding chamber in a deluge of pearlescent radiance that pierced even the visor shielding Tycoon's face.

 _This isn't right…!_ Tycoon gasped, raising his arms to his face. _The crystal…it's out of control!_

Without warning, the glowing heart of the crystal dissolved into nothingness, steeping the shrine in a veil of obsidian shadow. As the final motes of light suffocated in the darkness, Tycoon saw a vicious fissure race its way up the face of the crystal, the shriek of the glass splintering forcing a chill down his spine.

 _No…this cannot be…_

 _…Why now, after all this time…?_

The shrine fell into a suffocating silence as the Crystal of Wind shuddered over the dais and shattered into hundreds of pieces, drowning the chamber in a glittering squall as holy terror rained upon Tycoon's stunned form from the skies above.

* * *

 _Meanwhile…_

"Come on…almost there…!"

The young man licked his lips in delight as he leaned in closer over the fire blazing before him, rubbing his hands together. Across the way, a golden-feathered chocobo cut him a suspicious side-eye as he pecked at the pile of greens unceremoniously presented to him as lunch by his owner just a few moments before. The man made a face at the chocobo through the leaping flames, blowing a lock of thick mahogany hair out of his blue-gray eyes. A few seconds later, it flopped right back into place – no matter what he seemed to do, his copper-streaked hair always looked as if he had just walked through a windstorm.

"What's that look for?" the man exclaimed. "I can't just pick a few juicy leaves off the trees and call it a meal like you can. I've been dying for something I can actually chew for the last three days – it was a miracle the fishing here was actually good! I mean, just look at this beauty…aren't you jealous?" He arched his eyebrows in the direction of the glimmering rainbow trout that was roasting on the spit he had erected out of a fallen tree branch not far from where they had decided to set up camp for the day. The chocobo, being a vegetarian (as if there were any other kind of chocobo), let out a disinterested "WARK!" and turned back to its greens. The man snorted, drumming his fingers over his crossed legs impatiently as he once again took to admiring his fabulous catch.

It didn't take much to make Bartz Klauser happy at any given time – he prided himself on being one of those rare spirited types that always seemed to find the silver lining in a storm cloud, the ray of light at the bottom of Pandora's box, the gold among the dross…you get the idea. Even when his best friend and traveling companion, Boko, gave him sass, Bartz could only laugh and take it all in stride – having Boko by his side was a million times better than wandering alone, after all. And better yet, in less than a few minutes, he would have a belly full of delicious fish, and he had scouted out the perfect tree under which to take a well-deserved nap to laze the rest of the day away – until he needed to hunt for his next meal, that was.

But for the last three years of his life – he had just recently celebrated his twentieth birthday on the pearl-sanded coasts north of Castle Tycoon – Bartz had made his life philosophy to just live in the moment. He had limitless futures, limitless potential for happiness – why whittle any of that away with the constant fear of what tomorrow might bring?

 _This is what you wanted, isn't it, Father?_ Bartz smiled slightly to himself, ignoring the pained twist in his chest as his memory was flooded with the last conversation the two of them had ever had. _I was scared at first, but…now I think I finally understand. Any day on this planet can be our last…why not enjoy each of them to their fullest?_

He reached for the spit, his eyes glittering in anticipation, when a sudden quake ripped across the clearing floor, knocking the spit out of the hole he had dug into the dirt with his knife and sending it flying into the fire pit. Bartz's jaw dropped in protest as he watched the fish erupt into flames, the perfect toasted sheen of its pearlescent scales quickly swallowed by a scourge of black. Boko lifted his head, blinking in confusion as the trees around them quivered, their branches slapping precariously against one another. The nostrils slit within the sides of his big, orange beak flared as he spun around in place, finally stretching his neck to full length and releasing a panicked screech.

"WARK! WARRRRK!"

"What is it?" Bartz gasped, leaping to his feet and immediately grabbing hold of Boko's reins. Boko fluttered his (flightless) wings, kicking up dust with his massive three-toed feet and frantically jerking his head toward the sky. Bartz's gaze followed Boko's upward, and what he saw nearly turned his legs to flan.

A massive cratered lump – it almost looked like a charred moon that was falling from orbit – was careening straight for them, growing larger in size with every second that passed. It was so close that Bartz could feel the extreme heat rolling off of it in suffocating waves, sending the trees into a shivering frenzy all around him. But then, in the blink of an eye, the object disappeared from sight over the eastern stretch of the forest, and Bartz and Boko were greeted with another quake, this one far more powerful than before. Bartz clung to Boko for dear life as the world around him seemed to upend itself – shallow rifts were blossoming in the patches of dirt and wildflower clusters beneath his feet, and in the far distance, he heard the sickening crash of several trees smashing into each other.

After a few harrowing beats, the earth settled back into itself, and Bartz glanced up at Boko, eyes wide.

"That thing – whatever it was – must have landed somewhere nearby."

"Kweh?" Boko tilted his head toward the east, and Bartz nodded, effortlessly leaping onto the chocobo's back in one elegant jump, his long, lithe legs clutching Boko's sides as he leaned forward.

"Of course we're going to check it out! Let's mosey."

Boko kicked a pile of loosened dirt behind them, putting out the fire (and destroying what little may have remained of Bartz's lunch) in one fell swoop, and broke into a fierce run that even startled Bartz. In moments, they were free of the central clearing of the woods they had been occupying, and without the cover of the trees, Bartz could now clearly see a smoking monstrosity half-buried in the meadowlands ahead, a mess of flattened trees and plants spiraling outward from its core. Boko made a beeline for it, leaping over the gaping chasms that now littered the land without any instruction from Bartz.

 _Holy smokes,_ Bartz gulped as the shadow of the…thing...began to extend closer and closer toward them. _Where the heck did this come from!?_

When they reached a makeshift rim of jagged plates that had erupted from the earth below thanks to the foreign object's cataclysmic impact, Bartz gently tugged on Boko's reins, and the chocobo came to a stop, glancing back at him curiously.

"Boko, wait here, okay?" Bartz asked, hopping down to the ground and giving his knuckles a quick series of cracks. "I'm going to climb up and see if anything is there."

Boko nodded, a flurry of feathers fluttering loose as he hopped in the air and did a little shake.

 _Here goes nothing,_ Bartz thought as he jumped up, grabbing the first hold he could reach and shimmying his way up the shallow crater wall. His well-worn, sage-dyed suede boots weren't exactly ideal for the job, but they had enough tread to at least give him a little leverage. When he finally reached the top, he threw himself to the ground, gasping for breath and grinding the dust out of his eyes.

"Kee kee kee..."

He heard the patter of clumsy footfalls, and lifted his head, only to see a pair of goblins dragging something away that he couldn't quite make out – miraculously, some of the tall prairie grass hadn't been decimated upon impact, and was doing a stellar job of concealing whatever they had sniffed out around the object's base. Goblins were nasty little creatures – not exactly the most terrifying beast you could encounter in the wild, but clever enough that they could be a threat to an unseasoned squire or child. They were mostly attracted to shiny things – be it jewelry, weapons, or even garbage – and were prone to sneak attacking unsuspecting travelers, snatching whatever caught their eye, and shoving it into their tattered pants and stocking caps as they ran off. They were usually disgusting enough that once your treasure was spirited away, you didn't exactly want to go after it – greasy, lice-ridden blue hair was their trademark, and it usually concealed most of their features save for their beaked noses and pointy, crooked ears that stuck out several inches.

Bartz slowly lifted himself from the ground as to not cause a distraction, his hand hovering over the broadsword tucked away in the sheath hanging from his hip. The two goblins were carrying whatever it was they found between them – one hand on each side slumped over their treasure. As Bartz inched closer and got a better look, he felt all of the air flee from his lungs. The _thing_ they were dragging away was actually a _girl_ – and she was out cold, totally unaware of her current peril.

 _Best make quick work of them,_ Bartz smiled slightly, withdrawing his blade.

Luckily for him, or unluckily for the goblins, depending on your perspective – he was neither a squire nor a child.

He dashed forward, his blade raised in the air as he released a rallying cry to distract them from the girl. It worked – both goblins whirled around in shock, the girl flopping to the ground as Bartz took a flying leap and impaled one directly through the chest with one clean motion. The monster stumbled back, gurgling obscene curses (well, obscene in goblin-speak, whatever that was) bursting into a cloud of smoky ash before his body could hit the ground. The other goblin shrieked and tried to escape, but Bartz never left a job unfinished – he snatched the goblin by his oil-slicked hair, shuddering at the stench that he feared wouldn't wash off of him for months – it smelled like a mix of hot garbage and chocobo dung – and making quick work of the little beastie with a sword through his back.

When the dust had (literally) cleared, Bartz quickly sheathed his weapon and kneeled before the girl, gently pulling her into his arms. She was pretty in an almost odd, otherworldly way – her complexion was as white as freshly shaved ice, and tendrils of shoulder-length hair glowing with a hue that reminded him of the pink-stained clouds of a sunset were tumbling over her cheeks, a golden hairpin haphazardly hanging loose over her ear. She was wearing an orange sundress, loosely belted around the waist with a flowing pink sash. Upon her feet, she wore white and sky blue sheepskin booties with ties half-done and coiled at her ankles. Bartz couldn't quite put his finger on it, but her manner of dress seemed to have a queer juxtaposition as compared to the regal aura he could feel radiating from her very pores.

"Hey, are you all right?" Bartz whispered, gently tapping her cheek with two fingers. The girl let out a stifled moan, thick black lashes fluttering open to reveal a pair of rich jade eyes that made Bartz's heart pause mid-beat as he drank them in – they shone with such a radiance that he could see his own stunned reflection blinking back at him.

 _Whoa…hello there!_

"Y-yes... I believe so..." she blinked a few times before sitting up under her own power, making it a point to quickly put some space in between them. He couldn't help but blush as he sat back, immediately taking the hint, and watched as she absentmindedly reached up and undid the golden hairpin that was currently serving her no purpose. A shimmer of white gold caught the sun's light over her collarbone, and he saw a chain running down the length of her chest and disappearing into the sweetheart neckline of her dress. She didn't seem to notice his inadvertent staring as she brushed her fingers through her hair, snapping the accessory back into place to properly pin away her fringe. "I give you my thanks. My name is Lenna. And you are...?"

Bartz didn't realize she was talking to him again until she leaned in, giving him a little wave. He blinked away his scattered daydreams and plastered a smile on his face as he quickly replayed their conversation in his head to catch himself back up. "Me? Call me Bartz. Me and my chocobo just go wherever the trail leads us..." He nodded backward toward the ledge of the crater. "Boko's down there."

Lenna nodded as she pressed her fingers to her lips, and he couldn't help but blush deeper as she took her time fully evaluating her savior. Travel-worn boots of no particular fashion...taupe cotton slacks tucked into the boots and belted at the waist with a blue and gold-threaded tunic layered over a high-collared white shirt...

Yep, he appeared to be exactly what he said he was – an utterly average in every way vagabond – although maybe _freelancer_ was a more generous term.

For some reason, this brought her a great comfort…sitting here before her was a living, breathing example of how the world had not completely gone weird and submitted to chaos – not quite yet, anyway. _Maybe she still had time…_

"Bartz..." she trailed off, testing his name on her lips, and he nodded, smiling more.

"So, Lenna…do you remember what happened? What are you doing in a place like this?"

She turned away, biting her lip as she stared at the massive, pocked invader that was looming behind them. "This rock suddenly fell from the sky... The impact must have knocked me out."

"I guess it's a meteorite," Bartz frowned, following her gaze. "Although those usually burn up in the atmosphere before they get this far."

"A meteorite..." Lenna shook her head, sighing. "I wonder if it has a connection to the wind stopping?"

"Huh?" Bartz blinked, but she was already rising, brushing herself off and tapping the toes of her boots on the ground to shake off the dust from being dragged around.

"Again, I give you my thanks. I wish I could do something more to show my appreciation, but I really must go..." She offered a quick flutter of her fingers before walking away, and Bartz stumbled to his feet, reaching out after her.

 _What did she mean by that? The wind…_ ** _stopping_** _?_

"Whoa – hey, hold up a sec...you didn't answer my…"

"Ugh…"

Lenna froze in place, her ears perking up as both she and Bartz spun around to face the meteorite in unison.

"Bartz... Did you hear something?"

He nodded slowly, not wanting to reply in case the strange sound surfaced again.

"Oohhh... Ughhh... Help...me..."

"There's someone else here!" Lenna gasped, and Bartz nodded toward the east – it was the path the goblins would have continued down with Lenna had he not intervened. Were there more of them, or had they ambushed someone else along with Lenna…?

"Over here!" Bartz motioned. Lenna slid behind him, peering over his shoulder as he raised his sword. As they snuck around the front of the meteorite, using it as cover, they came upon another fallen figure sprawled out in the grass, face-down. It was an older man – Bartz guess he had to have been at least in his sixties thanks to the crown of snow-white hair that was hanging half-way out of a nub of a ponytail that just barely brushed the nape of his neck – but even collapsed on the ground, he had a formidable presence. He wore a form-fitting knit bodysuit that revealed an athletic build, golden plates woven over his shoulders and chest. Bartz could spy a bulky utility belt armed with more than a couple of weapons, and ornate leather boots with metal-plated soles. A knee-length emerald gilet was twisted over his back, streaked with dirt and torn in several places.

"Oh!" Lenna gasped, clasping her hand over her mouth. "He looks like he's hurt!" Bartz lowered his blade as she bolted past him, sinking to her knees and frantically shaking the man's shoulders. "Are you all right?" Another pained groan matching the sounds that had drifted over to them earlier discharged from the still figure, and Bartz watched as the stranger began to stir beneath Lenna's aggressive rousing.

"Where am I...?" he muttered, a pair of deeply-lined dark brown eyes fluttering open as he lifted his chin toward Lenna. He had an authoritative, square jaw, with thin, pale lips clenched together beneath a mustache that resembled a painter's brush. "Oh...my aching head!" He rubbed the back of his neck, wincing as Lenna withdrew her hands. A stain of black and blue was spidering down the right side of his face, and a dried streak of red ran over his forehead, disappearing in a shock of hair.

"You're on the outskirts of Tycoon," Bartz offered, sheathing his sword. "At the impact site of a meteorite. You're lucky to be alive, quite frankly." He raised an eyebrow, turning to Lenna. "You _both_ are!"

The man shook his head, his arms shaking as he planted his palms against the ground and started to haul himself up. Lenna offered her assistance, but he smiled gently, brushing her off. Bartz wondered if this guy was the type to never want to trouble a woman for anything, even when he was in deplorable condition. "Sakes alive...that's what happened? I don't remember..." He blinked a few times, his eyes widening as he clutched his head on the side containing the bruise. "Ehh...? I-I can't remember anything!"

"Looks like you hit your head pretty bad..." Bartz frowned. "Maybe you got amnesia."

"Amnesia!?" Lenna gulped, rising along with him. "You really can't remember a thing? What about your name, or where you're from?"

The old man pursed his lips, crossing his arms across his broad chest. "Oh! Something came back to me just now when you said that... My name is… _Galuf_!"

"That's a start!" Lenna clapped her hands together. "Anything else?"

Galuf gently knocked on the side of his skull, laughing apprehensively. "...Nope, just the name! Other than that, my memory's a blank slate..." His laughter quickly faded into a low groan, and he lowered his fist, staring despondently at the ground. "Damnation…"

 _Poor guy_ , Bartz thought. _To suddenly wake up and lose everything you've ever known in your life…I can't even imagine that kind of misery._

 _Although, on the other hand…maybe to some people…it would be a relief? A way to start over…_

He could feel a vexatious stinging in the back of his eyes. How many times had _he_ wished to forget…?

Lenna bit her lip, glancing back and forth between Galuf and Bartz before taking a few hesitant steps backward, her eyes dulled with contrition.

"I'm very sorry to do this…but you must excuse me, I have no time to waste."

"Where're you going?" Bartz tilted his head, wondering if she would answer this time. "If you don't mind me asking."

Lenna's hands fluttered to her breast, and Bartz watched as she nervously toyed with the chain hanging around her neck. "I must go to the Wind Shrine..." Galuf's head suddenly snapped up, and Bartz and Lenna yelped in surprise.

"The Wind Shrine! Now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure that's where I was headed!" He nodded to himself, slamming his hands together. "It's decided, I'm going with you!"

"B-but..." Lenna blinked, and Galuf danced to her side, grasping her hands in his.

"I could never let such a sweet girl go all by her lonesome. Plus, I know I've gotta get to that shrine...I feel it in my bones. You've gotta take me with!"

 _Oh please,_ Bartz tried not to laugh. _That line is never gonna work._

But Lenna merely nodded in agreement, her eyes darting to Bartz just in time to see his jaw hit the ground.

 _Seriously!? Just like that, she agrees to take him along?_

"Bartz, what about you?"

 _The Wind Shrine, eh?_ Bartz lowered his gaze. _I've never been, but…it's so far up north – within spitting distance of Lix. You'd eventually need to go through Tule to hitch a ride out there…_ He could feel Lenna's stare penetrating through the flop of hair that had fallen over his eyes, and shook his head slowly. _No…I'm not ready to go back…not quite yet._

"...Sorry, I'm gonna bow out on this one. Good luck, though."

Lenna and Galuf shared a look, his bushy brows arching inquisitively. Lenna shook her head as if to say "it's not worth arguing over", and pasted on a kind smile as she extended her hand toward Bartz. He smiled back, grateful she wasn't going to push the issue, and took her hand in his, shaking vigorously.

"Bartz..." Lenna's eyes sparkled as she breathed his name, and he felt a shy blush crawl up his cheeks. It was odd…he had never gotten a floaty feeling like this in his stomach when anyone else had ever said his name out loud like that. He feared if she asked him once more to come that he might actually comply…but alas, she did not. Dropping his hand, she bowed her head quickly, her hair tumbling over her shoulders. "Thank you again. Farewell..."

"Godspeed, and all that whatnot!" Galuf grinned, slapping Bartz on the shoulder. The surprising burst of strength from the old man nearly knocked the young adventurer on his face.

"Er, right!" Bartz coughed, raising his hand as they both started to walk away. "Nice to meet you both!" He watched them until they disappeared over the western ledge, sighing and waiting patiently for the butterflies in his stomach to settle – or maybe it was just gas? He _still_ hadn't eaten…

 _Well…that was weird._ He glanced back at the looming meteorite, involuntarily shuddering. Even now, he could still see middling trails of smoke rising from its surface, the smell of sulfur permeating the air. _I suppose the soldiers from Tycoon will be swarming this place soon to see what happened. It might be a good idea to make myself scarce, just in case._

Bartz retraced his path back to Boko, who was pecking and clawing at the ground, trying to dig up any traces of grass he could find that hadn't been burnt to a crisp or flattened into dust. He patted the chocobo on the head gently, mounting him once again. "Come on, Boko, let's go!"

"Kweh?" Boko chirped, and Bartz pointed north of the forest from which they had previously emerged.

"There's a little mountain path where we might be able to find some berries…"

"WARK!" Boko hopped happily, speeding off before Bartz could even finish his sentence. Clinging to Boko's neck for dear life, Bartz lowered his head, his amazonite earrings bouncing erratically against the hollows of his cheeks.

"I wonder what Lenna meant by the wind stopping…?" Bartz asked out loud. "I guess I can't really remember if it was windy today or not…"

"Kweh-kweh-kweh!?" Boko replied, tossing his head. ("If you don't remember, how do you expect me to!?")

The ground beneath Boko's feet began to get rockier, flecks of sliced grass sacrificed under his razor-sharp claws being replaced by flying pebbles and the scratch of hardened protein dragging over slate. As Bartz gently nudged Boko with his feet toward the cluster of blackberry shrubs at the base of a shallow cliff, Boko instead lifted his head higher, fluttering his wings excitedly and suddenly darting in the opposite direction.

"W-wait!" Bartz cried. "Where are you going? Food's over there, you know!"

Boko replied by promptly bucking Bartz off of his back, tossing him over the bird's shoulders into a crumpled heap of limbs alongside the cliff face opposite of the berries. Bartz managed to cover the back of his head just before crashing, his raw knuckles seething in pain as he flopped down face first into the dusty mountain path.

"Ow! Boko! Bad, bad chocobo! What are you doing, stopping like that!?" Bartz cried, lifting his head and wincing as he tasted something wet and metallic in his mouth. He could feel the beginning sting of a nasty cut on his lip – no doubt that was where the blood was coming from. Boko tilted his head, digging at the ground anxiously and swaying his bountiful tail feathers toward the path he had abruptly deposited Bartz upon.

"...Now don't you give me that look," Bartz moaned, turning his head to quickly spit out some blood.

"Kweh! Kweh, kweh!"

"...I know, it's just a girl and an old man... And with all those goblins running around..."

"Kweh…Kweh…WARK!"

"Fine, I got it, I got it," Bartz smiled weakly, clutching his stomach as an obnoxious gurgle let loose. "Lunch can wait a little while longer!"

Suddenly, the world around them began to shake once more, a massive fissure ripping open only steps away from the twisting path. Boko dove forward and Bartz hurled himself back on, the chocobo releasing a mighty screech as he leapt over the widening fissure, his wings snapping open to help ease them to the other side. As Bartz bounced dizzily from the action, two distinct screams ripped across the sky – both of which were unfortunately now very familiar.

"Lenna, Galuf!" Bartz gasped, his heart sinking into his stomach. _If they already reached the mountainside when the quake struck…_

"Boko, come on!"

"Kweh!"

As they raced up the collapsing path, Boko occasionally being forced to jump over gaping pits and widening crevices, a small pack of goblins emerged from the ledges of the valley – about four of them total, from what Bartz could see – and they were all brandishing their rusted and dented weaponry with malice glittering in their coal-like eyes – it was as if they somehow _knew_ what Bartz had just done to their brethren back at the meteorite.

"Now's not a good time, guys!" Bartz sighed, withdrawing his blade with his right hand while desperately clinging to the nape of Boko's neck with his left. "Did the meteor shake you out of hibernation or something?"

He made quick work of the monsters as they launched themselves into the quaking valley, kamikaze-style – Bartz had barely broken a sweat by the time the last goblin flopped to the ground, a gaping wound blossoming across his chest for his efforts as his friends dissolved into dust. A sudden cascade of rock came crashing down from the neighboring slopes just as Boko escaped another pit, barricading the path ahead of them that would have served as their exit. Pivoting and fleeing up the sharp incline of a collapsing cliff face to their right, Bartz could make out two still bodies fallen over the crest of the next hill among a pile of rubble that had made its way down the mountain – there was no doubt thanks to the flash of orange he saw peeking out of the yellowed mountain grass that they belonged to his new acquaintances.

"Slow down!" Bartz ordered, and Boko chirped in affirmation, lowering his body as he jogged the rest of the way up the hill. Bartz swept down, first grabbing an unconscious Lenna around the waist and hoisting her between himself and Boko. Boko then darted to the left, and Bartz snatched Galuf's outstretched hand, the old man stumbling for a few paces before he managed to climb onto Boko with the aid of Bartz's strength.

"Ugh…" Galuf moaned, promptly collapsing against Bartz's backside, his hands half-way around the boy's waist.

"Hang on!" Bartz gasped, clutching hold of Lenna so that she wouldn't fly off. "We're almost to high ground!"

A few minutes later, Boko finally came to a rest when he reached a spot on their new path that had leveled out and was no longer shuddering beneath his feet. The chocobo lowered himself to the ground, and Bartz hopped off, first pulling Galuf down and rolling him into the tall grass for safekeeping, and then returning to fetch Lenna. As he hoisted her over his shoulder, she let out a weary moan, and he could feel her jaw starting to twitch against his back.

"Ohhh..."

Bartz kneeled down next to Galuf, gently propping Lenna up against a flowering cottonwood tree and mimicking the dainty wave she had given him the first time she had tried to run off.

"G'morning."

Her opulent lashes parted like the house curtains on a grand stage, and much to his surprise, she greeted him with a sunny smile that reached her eyes. "Bartz! It seems I cannot escape being in your debt..."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Bartz winked. "I'm just glad to see you're OK." She nodded, peering over his shoulder, and he followed her gaze, a low sigh escaping his lips.

"But...a bit of bad news. The shockwave from the meteorite's impact caused landslides... The northernmost road's covered in rubble. I don't think you're gonna be able to make it to Tule that way, if that's the direction you were heading."

Lenna stared at him, the blood draining from her face, and he could feel his heart breaking alongside hers when the realization of their situation dawned upon her.

"But...if I can't get to the Wind Shrine, then..." She lowered her head, and Bartz could tell she was trying to hold back tears. "My father…!"

"Uhhhh..." Galuf grunted. "What's goin' on…?" Bartz and Lenna turned to him, and he rolled over, rubbing his forehead and clenching his jaw. "Wind Shrine...gotta hurry..."

 _Lenna's…_ ** _father_** _?_ Bartz looked away. _She seems serious about this shrine…if even this quake has not deterred her, then..._

"The old guy's still pretty dead set on getting there, too..." Bartz murmured, standing up. _If she's doing this for her father…who am I, of all people, to deny her aid?_

 _I don't understand why…but suddenly, I feel like our meeting wasn't an accident._

 _What could this possibly mean…?_

"Bartz?" Lenna blinked. "What's up?"

Bartz scratched his head, laughing a little. "Sorry, just got lost in thought – that happens with me sometimes. But it's _decided_ , as Galuf would say. I'll go with you two and personally see to it that you get there safely!"

"Oh!" Lenna gasped, scrambling to her feet. "R-really?"

"Yeah!" Bartz smiled slightly. "You know, it was my dad's dying wish that I go out and travel the world..."

"Your dad's…?" Lenna trailed off, biting her lip. Bartz nodded, pressing his palms together and closing his eyes. He didn't know _why_ in the world he was telling her this, but…

"…Plus, this time, it feels like…like the wind is calling me. Does…that sound too ridiculous?"

"Not at all," Lenna whispered, her eyes widening. "I…"

"What a sweet-talker!" Galuf suddenly snorted, and Bartz's eyes snapped open, the hair on the back of his neck rising as he turned to glare at him. Galuf had risen to his feet and was slapping his knee gleefully. "As if you don't just have the hots for the little missy."

"What!? Y-you're insane! I think you hit your head too hard again, old man!"

Galuf puffed out his chest, wagging his finger. "Don't sound so surprised – Just because I'm a little older than you doesn't mean I'm not extremely perceptive, you know. This old dog is always ready for anything – you'll see that soon enough!"

"A _little_ older…?" Bartz made a face. "You could easily be my father – no, make that grandfather!"

Lenna averted her eyes, trying not to laugh. Galuf crossed his arms, pointedly ignoring Bartz's observation. "Still, if the road is blocked, that makes things a sight more difficult..."

"Hrm..." Bartz frowned. "I suppose we could just keep on _this_ path and see where it takes us. If there are more monsters, they shouldn't be a challenge for all three of us."

Lenna nodded, clutching her fist. "I won't give up. There must be a way to reach the Wind Shrine!"

"Right!" Galuf grinned. "And we'll find it with lover-boy here as our guide!"

"And that is quite enough of that," Bartz flushed, gesturing toward his chocobo to take the glaring spotlight off of him. "Everyone, meet Boko – he's gonna be our ride! Boko, this is Lenna and Galuf."

"Kweh!" Boko lifted a wing, and Lenna jumped in the air, clapping her hands.

"Oh, you are the cutest thing! Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Boko!"

"My word, this is quite a beast," Galuf grinned. "Have you ever had fried choco-?"

"Not a good idea," Bartz interrupted, and Boko raised his head, snorting angrily. "Much like you, he's extremely _perceptive_."

"I'd expect nothing less of the noble steed belonging to our knight in shining armor," Galuf laughed. "Carry on, then – lovely to meet you, Boko."

"Kweh…" Boko nipped Bartz in the shoulder, cutting him a fierce side-eye. Bartz leaned in as Galuf helped Lenna climb up, whispering in Boko's ear.

"Hey…just remember…this was YOUR idea!"


	2. The Lord of the Seas

2: The Lord of the Seas

Any concerns Bartz initially held about running out of things to discuss on the way to Tule with the two strangers-turned-traveling companions were dismissed a half hour after their impromptu reunion, when he realized that Galuf had not stopped talking the _entire_ time they had been scaling the collapsed mountainside.

 _For a guy who doesn't remember anything, he certainly has a lot to say,_ Bartz mused. Part of him thought that Galuf was posturing in the presence of a pretty girl – Lenna _was_ admittedly beautiful, even more so now that she seemed to be coming out of her shell just a little. Bartz could still see the worry etched into her brow as they climbed, but her jade eyes sparkled as she swapped tales with Galuf, and once in a while, a blithesome laugh would escape her lips as she glanced back over her shoulder, giving Bartz a "can you believe this guy?" look that made him simultaneously grin and blush, like they were sharing a secret just between the two of them.

But there was also something else about Galuf that seemed almost…parental. He had been quick to volunteer to escort Lenna to the shrine, but it wasn't just that... Bartz had observed how Galuf's arm would suddenly fly out in front of Lenna whenever they encountered more Goblins, even though she had her own dagger and had shown during their last few scuffles that she was perfectly capable of using it. He would also make it a point to check each new path they encountered thoroughly before gesturing for Bartz and Lenna to follow.

 _I wonder if his family knows where he is?_ Bartz frowned. _Was he wandering the fields of Tycoon by himself, or was someone with him when the meteorite hit…? We didn't see anyone, but between the impact and the quakes, it's hard to believe anyone else could have possibly survived…he and Lenna were way too lucky…_

"And what about you, Bartz?"

"Huh?"

Galuf chuckled, arching one wild brow. "I asked what brought you to these parts. You're not from around here, right?"

"Well…" Bartz blinked, momentarily releasing Boko's reins to push his hair from his eyes. He could feel Lenna staring down at him from atop Boko's back. "I'm not, no. How did you know?"

"I can just tell," Galuf shrugged, nodding toward Lenna. "She's from Tycoon, and speaks with a fairly distinct accent. You don't sound alike at all, so I just figured you weren't from Tycoon yourself."

"Accent?" Bartz blinked. He hadn't even noticed Lenna had an accent – but more importantly…

"You're from Tycoon?" Bartz looked up at her, and her lips twitched.

"Yes – I just said that! Guess you were daydreaming again?"

"Maybe a little," Bartz laughed sheepishly. "Sorry." Lenna started to shake her head, but nearly fell forward as Boko came to a sudden stop, letting out a little gasp as she clung to his neck feathers.

"Whoa!" Bartz exclaimed, the reins going slack in his hand as he caught up to the chocobo. He, Boko, Galuf and Lenna all glanced up, only to see the gaping mouth of a cave rising before them. It was too dark to see what was inside, but Bartz could hear the steady drip of water, and a rush of cool, brackish air met his lungs as he inhaled.

 _It almost tastes like…the sea._

Lenna hopped off of Boko, biting her lip as she wrapped her arms around herself, gingerly approaching the cavern entrance. The heels of her boots clicked against the slate beneath them, ringing ominously in the still mountain air.

 _Click…clack…click...clack._

"I don't remember there being a cave here..." Lenna murmured.

Bartz had to take her word for it – she was the apparent native, after all. He wondered if she was some type of huntress from one of Tycoon's many scattered rural villages – it would explain her knowledge of the local topography. "Probably opened up during one of those quakes."

"It might be the only way we can make passage," Galuf frowned. "What do you say? You guys up for a little spelunking?"

"We've come too far to turn around now," Lenna nodded. "Bartz, what do you think? Should be relatively harmless, right?"

"Well, harmless might be a stretch, but…" Bartz wondered just how many pairs of eyes were buried within, watching for their next meal. "…Galuf is right – this is the only path we have." He turned to Boko, giving the bird a gentle pat on his beak. "Boko, I think this is gonna be a little too dangerous for chocobos. You stay here, okay?" The last thing he wanted was for his buddy to stumble upon something in the darkness and break a leg.

"Kweh!"

And Boko seemed to agree with that sentiment, taking a few steps back as if to gesture for Bartz to move right on ahead.

"Do either of you two know any black magic?" Galuf asked hopefully. "A Fire spell might help light the way."

"Afraid not, I know only a bit of white magic for first aid," Lenna frowned, and Bartz shook his head.

"I don't have a magical bone in my body…"

"Ah, that's too bad," Galuf's mustache crinkled a bit as he took in one last view of the vista before them before turning his attention back to the cave. "We'll just have to make do!"

"What about you?" Bartz asked, although he already half-anticipated Galuf's answer as they made their way inside.

"Sadly, if I do know any spells…I can't remember them."

 _Yep, the magic gene seemed to skip a generation with me,_ Bartz thought as they sank into the darkness, a biting chill invading the well-worn fibers of his tunic. Slowly, his eyes became accustomed to the penetrating black that surrounded them, and he could make out a snaking tunnel that Galuf was already heading toward to explore. Lenna had fallen back to sync her footsteps with Bartz's, her eyes wide and her hand hovering over the hilt of her dagger. Every once in a while, an unexpected scratching noise would accompany their progress, and Bartz would feel her flinch next to him.

His father, Dorgann Klauser, had known a fair amount of magic – he wasn't a master mage by any stretch of the imagination, but he knew enough black and white magic to be their village's go-to guy when it came to the dispatching of monsters that would dare to get too close to their borders, or the occasional heal job when the village physician was otherwise occupied. It had never seemed like a big deal that Bartz had inherited none of his father's abilities save for knowing his way around a sword – in fact, sometimes Bartz thought that his father was actually _relieved_ his son hardly had anything in common with him.

That was an admission Bartz could never bring himself to say aloud – he felt embarrassed just thinking it. The closest he had ever come to asking about his father's indifference toward his development was in a throwaway comment to his mother, Stella, one night in bed, while they were both anxiously awaiting Dorgann's return home from another sudden mission that had sent him half-way across the continent. Being a child at the time, it was long-past the hour that little boys should have been asleep, but Stella seemed content to sit up with him the nights Dorgann was away – despite them already spending a great deal of time together, it was always at nights that Bartz had felt the closest to his mother.

"Mom, how come you don't go with Dad on any of his missions?"

He remembered Stella laughing airily as she adjusted his covers. Hunter green hair slid over her shoulders in glossy tresses that hung just past her chest, and thin, chapped lips broke out into a wide smile, like Bartz had just said the funniest thing in the world. Light pink circles embraced her hooded eyes – Bartz could never remember a time she had been without them, and had always thought they were from her make-up. It wasn't until much later in life that he realized they were a result of her chronic illnesses – that her body was always tired, always fighting, and that those efforts were reflected first and foremost in her haunting iceberg eyes.

"And what good would I be with this weary body? I can't cast a spell or raise a weapon to save my life. I'm put to better use taking care of you, darling – nurturing those you love takes a different kind of strength, but it's a strength nevertheless."

"Maybe that's why Dad never takes me?" Bartz pouted. "'Cause I can't use magic or fight like him?"

"Hardly the case," Stella smiled. "Not everyone can use magic, and such differences among us are worth celebrating. It would be boring if we were all the same, right?"

"…Maybe."

"And your father just wants you to have a happy, normal life, like anyone else," Stella added. "That's why we moved here, after all – there are lots of families and kids for you to make friends with so you have support when you finally do make your way into the world. If you really want to follow in his footsteps someday, he'll…"

Suddenly, Stella broke out into a violent coughing fit, retrieving her handkerchief from her vest pocket just in time to shield Bartz from the blossoming stains of red that bled through the silk.

A splash of cold water interrupted Bartz's reminiscing, and he glanced down, only to see that he had inadvertently stepped into a glittering spring that was quickly soaking through his boots. Lifting his foot and shaking the droplets of water away, Lenna came up behind him, tilting her head.

"What's that spring? It seems out of place in a dank cavern like this."

"I've heard about bodies of water blessed by the crystals that can heal wounds, but have never actually seen one in person," Bartz replied. "But it sure glitters like a crystal, doesn't it?"

"And there's no light shining upon it that would otherwise account for such a phenomenon," Lenna added, her lips slowly curling into a smile. "A miraculous spring – aren't we lucky! Maybe this is the crystals' way of telling us we're on the right path!"

"I like the way you think!" Bartz grinned, reaching into the pouch hanging from his belt and retrieving an empty glass vial. "Shall we bottle some of this good luck for later?" Lenna nodded, pressing her palms together.

"Hey, you two!" Galuf suddenly hissed. Bartz hadn't noticed, but the old man had wandered further down another twisting corridor, and was now rushing back to them. "We're not alone in here!"

"What!?" Lenna gasped, and Bartz nearly dropped the vial, quickly bending down to fill it and replacing the stopper before shoving it back into his pouch. Galuf paid the pretty spring no mind as he lowered his voice, gesturing toward the corridor.

"I swear I saw something skulking around…might have been human. But as far as I can see, the cavern ends at the bottom of this path."

"How would someone else get in here?" Bartz whispered. He hadn't been paying much attention, but their journey through the cave had been rather linear – they would have surely noticed long before now if someone had snuck in after them. And if Lenna had been correct about the entryway not being open until the quake, wouldn't they have run into any other explorers on their way up?

But Lenna's thoughts were going in an entirely different direction.

"The path cannot end here," she pleaded, as if Galuf or Bartz were able to do anything about it. "The Wind Shrine…"

"I know, I know," Bartz said softly. "My promise still stands – we'll find a way." He turned to Galuf, nodding. "Let's go."

They retraced Galuf's steps, creeping toward the end of the sloping tunnel – Bartz could feel his feet sliding against the increasingly wet cavern floors, and had to grip the briny walls a few times to keep himself from falling on his face.

 _We're going lower…and the scent of water is getting stronger._

A few moments later, they reached the end of the tunnel, which spilled into a final chamber that was emblazoned with crackling torches shoved carelessly into carved sconces every few feet. Puddles of water were scattered across the weather-worn rock floors, ripples of water reverberating from their centers as clunky footfalls bounced off the walls.

"Someone's definitely here," Galuf whispered. "These torches weren't lit before!"

"Hush!" Bartz pressed a finger to his lips, smashing himself against the corridor wall. Lenna and Galuf quickly followed suit, and they silently observed as a lanky figure emerged from the shadows, muttering something under his breath. His greasy, coffee-colored hair was swept into a rat's nest that was shoved under a stained (with gods only knew what) navy bandana that was tied over his head. Lines of tattoos crossed over his shirtless chest and back, most of them unrecognizable in the failing light, although Bartz was pretty sure he could make out at least a couple skulls hanging out on one bicep. A pair of water-logged, sagging pants were hanging from the man's hips, the only object preventing Bartz and the others from getting to know the stranger much more intimately being a fraying rope looped around his waist in the place of a belt. Strapped over his shoulders was a battered holster, and gleaming off the curve of one of his jutting shoulder blades was a rust-tipped cutlass.

As the man approached a pool of torchlight, a grizzled visage was revealed – patches of uneven beard filled the lower half of his face, and a gaudy collection of mismatched earrings ran along the curve of his ear, each gem more brilliant than the last. He muttered something again, nonchalantly scratching underneath a leather patch over his left eye before reaching up and yanking down the torch that stood above him. There came a terrible shaking that nearly knocked Bartz onto his rear, with Lenna managing to grab his arm just in a nick of time, and a portion of the rock wall next to the stranger slid away, revealing a light-filled hall. As if he could sense he was being watched, the man suddenly spun around, suspiciously eying the chamber behind him and causing Bartz, Lenna and Galuf to simultaneously suck in their stomachs and press themselves so deeply against the stone wall that Bartz could feel the rocks embedding themselves into his spine.

But after a few beats, the man seemed satisfied that he was alone, and flounced through the newly-revealed entryway, torch still in hand. Moments later, the hidden door slammed back shut, and Bartz jumped off the wall, turning to the others excitedly.

"Aha! So _that's_ how you get in!"

"Who was that guy?" Galuf blinked. "He looked like the villain out of a children's book!"

"Our new tour guide, apparently," Lenna said, making her way to one of the other torches and tugging it out of the sconce – she had to stretch on her tiptoes to do so. "Let's follow him – there may be other hidden paths out of here that he'll reveal."

"I like her moxie," Galuf grinned, and Bartz couldn't help but smile along with him, even though he was starting to get the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that maybe this wasn't such a great idea.

 _But, still…a promise is a promise._

Lenna re-activated the hidden door by following the strange man's movements to a T, and the party made their way into the next cavern, which was like entering another world compared to the dreary hole they had just crawled out of. Beams of sunlight poured over them from an opening to the north, rendering the blazing torch Lenna still held in her hands now-useless, while a twisting path to the west wove between towering stalagmites, blankets of mossy groundcover surging through fissures in the smooth-as-glass limestone. Fresh air drenched with the scent of the ocean filled the space, and there seemed to be no sign of their inadvertent companion.

"Is this some sort of grotto?" Galuf marveled. "Did you know anything like this was in Tycoon, Lenna?"

"Not at all," Lenna shook her head. "I'm admittedly a little flummoxed at the moment."

"What's that?" Bartz asked, pointing toward the opening in the wall. "A way out, you suppose?"

They approached cautiously, all three of them hyper-aware that they could be being watched and not wanting to appear as a threat. But upon reaching the threshold of the would-be exit, it was revealed that they had merely wandered onto a sea-stained cliff overlooking an eerily-calm bay – there was no way down, save for jumping into a spread of jutting rocks and meeting a rather splattery end.

"Well, that's a letdown," Galuf sighed. "Although I suppose this means our mystery man took the other path out of here instead."

Bartz pressed his lips together, sweeping his gaze over the outspread ocean and making note of the sun's position in the sky – the time had gotten away from him once he and Boko had begun their frenzied pursuit of Lenna and Galuf, and he estimated that it would only be an hour or two more before sunset.

 _It would be best to get out of here before darkness falls,_ Bartz thought. _Boko – I hope you're keeping yourself safe!_

He really had very little reason to worry – one couldn't ask for a smarter traveling companion than the stalwart, resourceful Boko, and there had been more than one occasion where it had been Boko's wits that had gotten them out of scrapes. Even so, that didn't stop Bartz from missing his best friend – now that he really thought about it, this had been the longest the two of them had been separated since they had started their journey together.

As Galuf and Lenna turned to make their way back into the cave, a flicker of white on the horizon caught Bartz's eye, causing him to gasp aloud.

"What is it?" Lenna asked, pushing her hair behind her ear, and Bartz pointed across the bay. Making its way toward the mountain range at a slow, but steady clip, was a massive ship, tiers of ivory sails fluttering in the non-existent wind. At the very top of the tallest mast, a darkly-colored flag fluttered, but Bartz couldn't make out what kingdom's standard was emblazoned upon it – they were still too far away, and he didn't have a great grasp of the different symbols that accompanied each region anyway. Sheepishly, he realized he had hoping Lenna would recognize it – in the short time he had gotten to know her, she seemed to be one of those people who incomprehensibly knew _everything_. As if she could read his mind, Lenna shook her head, crossing her arms beneath the subtle rise of her chest.

"Wherever that vessel may hail from, it doesn't belong to Tycoon."

"How is that ship sailing with the wind so weak?" Bartz queried, and the three of them turned to each other, question marks illuminating their confused stares.

They proceeded to take the only other path left for them, descending deeper into the cavern before finally coming upon what could only be another hidden door – they had reached what looked like a dead end, and were met with another empty sconce where a torch had once sat. Bartz and Galuf nodded toward Lenna, who went through the motions of depositing the torch she had carried in from the other room and removing it once again. A low rumble of grinding rock greeted them, and as expected, the false wall before them slid open, a delicate shower of gravel dust raining over them as they quickly slipped through.

Rising walls of silver and turquoise-stained slate stretched into the hollows of the ceilings above, the silence that permeated the previous chamber replaced by distant chatter, the crackling of flames, and a dull roar to the east that Bartz couldn't quite make out. Just as Bartz took his first step forward, a crashing sound rang out, and hurried footsteps began to make their approach.

"Shoot! Hide!" Bartz hissed, and reluctantly, Lenna cut their only source of light by drowning the torch in a puddle by her feet and diving behind one of the walls. Bartz and Galuf flattened themselves on the ground in the shadows of a massive pile of rubble that was punctured with several abandoned picks. Lifting his gaze, Bartz watched as a one-armed figure strolled by, his left hand cocked over his hip as he eyed the hidden entryway that was still wide-open. He was dressed similarly to the man they had encountered earlier, with the exception of his bandana doing a poor job of concealing a nearly-balding dome and not one, but two holsters strapped across his chest, each filled with a variety of knives that Bartz reckoned was perhaps overkill for a man with only one hand in which to use them. A strained voice echoed from several yards away, causing both Bartz and Galuf to nearly jump out of their skin.

"Arr…what's the problem? We gotta meet the crew ashore before the cap'n gets mad. All hands on deck, ya know."

"Yar…damned door is stuck again," the man shouted, revealing a mouthful of silver-plated teeth and crossing the precious distance between himself and Lenna, whom Bartz could see was shrinking in the corner where the wall met the cave, willing every molecule in her body to contract with her eyes scrunched shut. He was mentally calculating the improbable gymnastics he'd have to execute to reach Lenna in time if she was spotted when the man suddenly slammed his foot into the extended doorway, grunting in satisfaction as it began to slowly drag itself back into place and whirling around to head back, his eyes never once sweeping over their quadrant.

 _Phew…_ Bartz inwardly unleashed a sigh of relief, not daring to move until he could no longer hear footsteps. His stare was once again drawn toward Lenna, whom he saw was watching him and Galuf expectantly for the signal to come out of hiding, her eyes flooded with respite.

It was only then that Bartz noticed the tattered black banner nailed into the cave walls over Lenna's head.

An ivory skull with crossbones fashioned out of pair of intricately stitched cutlasses that looked remarkably like the weapon their "guide" had been carrying – and was suspiciously the same color as the banner Bartz spotted on the incoming ship. All at once, the puzzle pieces clicked into place, and Bartz blanched, Galuf giving him a queer look as he stared dizzily into the ground.

 _Eyepatches._

 _Exceptionally poor hygiene._

 _Stereotypical vernacular._

 _A black flag on a mysterious ship…_

"This is a pirate hideout..." Bartz sputtered, finally willing himself to sit up. "…Meaning that ship we saw must've been a _pirate_ ship!"

"Ah, that makes sense," Galuf nodded, oblivious to Bartz's rising panic, and Lenna scurried over to them, dropping to crouch on the soles of her feet and raising her eyebrows. "Pirates, you say? I wonder if they would give us a ride to the Wind Shrine?"

Bartz and Galuf exchanged looks of disbelief as Lenna stared at them blankly.

"Um, I think the only ride they'd be interested in would be a keelhaul for all three of us," Bartz explained, and Galuf nodded, patting Lenna on the shoulder.

"I'm afraid he's right, my dear. You can't just go and ask a favor from a pirate!"

 _At last, reason makes its much-belated appearance from the old coot!_ Bartz thought relievedly. Just as he was about to propose they turn tail and declare this route a bust, Galuf winked, wagging his finger.

"…That's why we'll just sneak on and _steal_ their ship, instead!"

"…Wait, WHAT!?" Bartz spun around, his jaw on the ground. "You can't be serious."

"What makes you think I'm not?" Galuf grinned, and Bartz honestly didn't know how to reply to such a question.

"It's worth a shot," Lenna began, and Bartz smacked his palm against his forehead.

"Lenna, with all due respect…the goal was to get you two to the Wind Shrine fully intact. Don't you think stealing a pirate ship is perhaps going a little overboard?"

"Ha, _overboard_ …that's a good one," Galuf guffawed, and Lenna placed her hand over Bartz's forearm, biting her lower lip as her eyes found his.

"Bartz…I know this sounds senseless, but you just have to trust me…I think it's going to work out. Sometimes you just have to have faith, you know?"

Bartz sighed, patting her hand before reluctantly pulling away and rising to his feet. He could feel it again…that strange, warm, nostalgic sensation spreading throughout his chest that he had gotten when he had encountered Lenna on the mountain.

 _"Have faith"…sounds like something Mom would have said, once upon a time._

 _Or maybe she did…and I just can't remember anymore._

He offered his hand out to Galuf, who took it gratefully and pretended his back was cracking as he stood up, jokingly wincing. "You whippersnappers going to help little ol' me swipe a boat or what?"

"You're pretty gutsy for an old-timer," Bartz smiled, shaking his head. "If this is what you and Lenna want…"

"Thank you," Lenna sighed, bowing her head. "I know it's not ideal…if it wasn't an emergency…"

"Hey, listen," Bartz interrupted, holding up his hand. "You don't have to justify yourself to me, OK? This…uh…is apparently what we all signed up for. I'm down for it. I'm totally down for stealing a ship from a universally feared syndicate of criminals. When I woke up this morning, I thought 'You know what, Bartz Klauser? You've been taking it way too easy, as evidenced by making it to your twentieth birthday unscathed and with all of your digits. You need to get out there, and seize the day – you need to STEAL A PIRATE SHIP!'."

"Aww, we're only a year apart!" Lenna smiled, his impassioned sarcasm completely going over her head. Galuf slapped his knee, flicking a tear away from his eye.

"You only needed to repeat that a few more times to convince me you meant it. Well then…lead the way, Captain Bartz!"

 _The pirate mentioned they were meeting a ship ashore,_ Bartz mulled. _So the port must be nearby._

They quietly snuck away from their hiding place, peering down the pathway the pirate had previously stalked to get a better look at their surroundings. A series of lit torches hung along the cave walls, some of which had crude doorways carved within and covered with nailed, rotting wood slabs and tattered canvas to cover up some of the bigger holes between the faltering planks.

"Look!" Lenna whispered, pointing toward one of the doors half-hanging off of its hinges. The one-armed pirate was slumped in front of it, his chin touching his chest and his eyes slammed shut. "Did something hurt him…?"

"Like a pirate brawl!?" Galuf asked excitedly, and Bartz hushed them both, shaking his head.

"He's obviously sleeping. Let's _keep_ it that way."

The roar was getting louder now – Bartz gestured for them to turn right, and after a few moments and a series of doors, they found themselves blinking in a spill of sunlight at the ledge of a barnacle-covered dock that stretched beneath the shadows of the mountain towering behind them into the harbor. The ship they had spotted off the cavern ledge was parked only a few yards away, the gangplank tantalizingly laid out before them like a red carpet. Water was lapping against the ship's hull and crashing against the cliffside the hideout was buried within, which Bartz now realized was the source of the roar they could hear inside.

 _The wind may be dying, but the oceans seem to be as fierce as ever…_

"Where did all the pirates go?" Lenna frowned. "And how in the world did this ship return to harbor so fast with the failing winds?"

"It looks like the hideout continues across the way," Galuf nodded toward another set of doors several yards opposite of where they had entered – and one of them was ajar. "Maybe they're going through all their ill-gotten booty?"

A sudden burst of gruff laughter from across the harbor served to solidify his theory, making the three of them jump in place.

"L-Let's just hurry up before one of them comes out," Bartz muttered, hurriedly feeling for his sword to ensure it was still with him before barreling up the gangplank. Lenna and Galuf were close behind, chasing him down the deck toward the helm where Bartz made a record-breaking inspection of the equipment before him, his mind racing as he struggled to recall the very few times he had ever been on a ship, let alone had his hands on any controls.

"There has to be something here that propels the ship forward without wind," Galuf said, kneeling down to take a look under the console that supported the massive wheel. Lenna crossed the deck to the rear, peering over the ledge and shaking her head as she called back to them.

"I don't see any anchors cast in the water. We should be clear to go!"

"No anchors?" Bartz tilted his head, pulling down on a random ivory-encased lever. "That seems…bold." A guttural purring erupted from the ship's core upon his release of the lever, the ship shuddering beneath their feet.

"I think you did it!" Lenna gasped, scrutinizing the choppy waters closer. "I can see something spinning beneath…it might be a propeller!"

"Yo-ho-ho, and stuff!" Bartz pumped his fist in the air, letting out a weak laugh. "Time to cast off!"

But after a few dramatic beats, the three of them realized the ship wasn't moving even a fraction of an inch. The sails were still flat against their masts, and Galuf crossed his arms over his chest, cocking a judging brow in Bartz's direction as Lenna slipped away to investigate the bow for anything she might have missed. Bartz yanked the wheel to the left with no give, and tried again on the right, only to meet the same fate.

"...Well? 'Cast off' means start sailing, kid."

Bartz spun around, smacking one of the wheel's spokes with the back of his hand as he glared at Galuf. "I know that! The wheel won't even budge. How do you work this thing?"

A strained, salty alto ripped across the deck like a thunderclap, and Bartz felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand straight up, his feet suddenly transforming into concrete blocks and the blood draining from his body, leaving his limbs a mess of wiggly noodles.

"Try working _anything_ and there'll be the devil to pay!"

 _"Ah-ahhhhh!"_

"Lenna!" Galuf and Bartz cried, the shock shook from their systems by her piercing scream. Spinning around, they could only stare, mouths agape, as Lenna stumbled toward them with wide eyes, a towering figure in a fluttering obsidian brocaded coat with violet hair swept back in a low ponytail of tangles and roughly-hewn braids striding behind her. The stranger took calm, even steps, a bemused smile curled on his blood-red lips like a fresh wound. An elegant nose, slightly sloped at the tip, was sprayed with a delicate shower of freckles, the rest of his skin sun-kissed with an enviable tan.

Seafoam orbs obscured by stray wisps of hair narrowed as he took in the sight of the quivering intruders stranded at the helm, and moments later, a crowd of pirates slithered up behind him, laughing amongst themselves as they purposely blocked the only exit.

"B-Bartz…" Lenna gulped, and he grabbed her hand, tugging her to safety between himself and Galuf. The man with the violet hair laughed, crossing his arms over his chest and abruptly halting his advance.

"Trying to steal my ship, are you? You've a lot of brass...or mayhap you're just lacking in brains! I'd wager it's the latter, right boys?"

"Arrr, right you are, Cap'n Faris!" the chorus of pirates broke out into another round of vicious laughter, and Bartz and Galuf exchanged pained glances as the glare of a very long, very sharp sabre hanging at Faris's hip reflected the dying sun straight into their eyes.

"What's the matter?" Faris smirked, his knee-high, gold-embroidered leather boot tapping maddeningly against the well-polished deck. "You're not even man enough to answer for your transgressions?" As if on cue, the swell of pirates behind him all suddenly withdrew their blades, their laughter ceasing.

 _Oh sweet Christmas, what are they going to do to us?_ Bartz could hear his heart hammering a million miles a minute as his gaze swept over their aggressors. _Maybe_ he could have taken on the captain in a one-on-one duel – the guy looked surprisingly lucid for being the leader of these…well, _sea tramps_. But Bartz reckoned he could run more than a few circles around him, especially with that fancy-schmancy coat getting in the way. But to take on an entire herd of pirates at once with just Galuf and Lenna on his side?

Well, that was pretty much assisted suicide.

 _What have I gotten myself into…?_

 _Dad…what should I do? I promised to protect them..._

"WAIT!"

Lenna defiantly raised her chin, shoving past Bartz and Galuf and marching toward Faris. The captain's depthless eyes looked as if they were about to devour the slip of a girl whole, his pupils retracting into pinpricks of black as he drank her in her petite form – a meadowland daisy shuddering in the shadow of a snapping wolf.

"Lenna!" Galuf hissed. "Get back here!"

But she ignored him, lowering her hands to her sides as she gazed up at Faris expectantly. With the slightest flick of Faris's wrist, the pirates' swords suddenly lowered, and Lenna bowed her head, clasping her hands together.

"Please accept my apologies for attempting to commandeer your ship, Captain Faris – their trespasses were merely a result of my orders. I am Princess Lenna Charlotte of Tycoon, first of her name and heir to His Majesty, King Alexander Highwind Tycoon."

For what he sadly suspected would not be the last time that day, Bartz's jaw flew open, his words stumbling over each other as the full gravity of their situation seeped into his exhausted, mottled mind.

"Wha? Princess..."

Galuf gulped, shrinking back a bit as if Lenna had just announced she would spontaneously combust – Bartz wondered if that dirty old man was suddenly rescinding a lot of unchivalrous thoughts he might have had about the heir to one of the most powerful kingdoms in the world – not that he would necessarily know that last part, with his amnesia and all. "...of Tycoon!?"

 _Lenna, what in the world were you thinking?_ Bartz lowered his head, desperately trying to calm the rush of nausea rising in his throat just thinking about the world-shaking political ramifications that would have ensued if he hadn't rushed back to the mountains to save her. It hit him all of a sudden that her status actually explained quite a lot – she knew so much about Tycoon because her family practically owned the ground they were walking on – or would be walking on, if they weren't on what was most likely to become their floating graves. But her naïve approach to most everything was surely attributed to her peculiar life – she really hadn't been facetious when she thought they could just _ask_ the pirates for help – she was probably used to most everyone leaping at her every command simply because of her name.

Faris arched a slender, sculpted brow at this revelation as Lenna lifted her gaze once more. "Sir, this is a formal request from the kingdom of Tycoon. Please, allow us the use of your vessel. I must get to the Wind Shrine - my father is in danger!"

Faris glanced over his shoulder at the crew as if to see what they made of all this, and they responded to Lenna's pleas with a cackle. He turned back to her, suddenly snatching her chin between his bejeweled fingers and forcing her to stare directly into his eyes as he dug his fingernails into the hollows of her cheeks.

"Oho, the princess of Tycoon, here on _my_ ship? I'm sure we could fetch a good price for this one. With the king out and about, is there anyone back at the castle to pay a little ransom for you, my dear?"

"Hey!" Bartz barked, and Faris glared up at him, showing a hint of slightly crooked ivory teeth. Bartz tried to control the shaking in his voice as he took a step forward, reaching for his blade. "Leave her alone, you degenerate, lecherous, piratey...erm…pirate!"

"Good one, kid," Galuf muttered, but nevertheless offered his solidarity by grasping the hilt of his sword and shooting Faris his best threatening look.

Lenna gasped, struggling against Faris's ironclad grip. "I beg of you, please...we don't want to fight. If I don't reach my father soon, I fear his life will be forfeit to forces far more fearsome than any of us can possibly understand! You…you have to believe me!"

Faris chewed his lip, suddenly releasing Lenna just as she made another effort to wrench away. She fell on the deck, crying out as her hands and knees collided with the planks. The white gold chain that had been patiently hanging around her neck suddenly fell out of the front of her dress, revealing a beautifully sculpted pendent shaped like a dragon's wing with a spray of emeralds inlaid along the inner-most webbing. Faris hardened his glare at the sight of the jewel, something in his stomach clenching as he turned away from Lenna and muttered under his breath.

"That pendant...!"

"What do ya want us to do with 'em, Cap'n?" one of the pirates sneered, peeking over Faris's shoulder. "Shall I take the jewelry as payment before slicing their bellies?"

After what felt like an interminable silence, Faris finally shook his head, waving his hand in the air in a pithy dismissal. "...Toss the lot of 'em into the brig!"

"Aye-aye, Cap'n!" the pirates cheered, and Lenna lifted her head, tears stinging the corners of her eyes as she tried to scramble to her feet.

"No, please…!"

"You give me a headache, lass," Faris snorted, and walked away through the parting crowd of his devoted crew, his ponytail swishing behind him like a silken whip. Lenna, Galuf and Bartz gulped in unison as the pirates descended upon them, coils of water-logged rope dangling in their hands.

"Don't try anything," one of the pirates sneered, revealing rows of rotting, blackened teeth and watching pointedly as Bartz gingerly removed his hand from the vicinity of his hip – and his weapons. "If the Cap'n hears even the tiniest scritch of steel, he'll put an end to ya faster than a blink of me glass eye."

* * *

Bartz figured it had to be nightfall the next time he opened his eyes – as the world around him began to come back into focus, he noticed a clouded, rust-ridden porthole hanging across wherever he had been deposited, but he could only make out a smear of darkness. Either they had been taken into the depths of hell itself, or the sun had set for the day. As fantastical as what was supposed to be a boring escort mission had turned out to be, Bartz was fairly sure even Faris's crew wouldn't have been able to ferry them off to the underworld quite yet.

The last thing he had remembered before everything going dark was a hard whack to the back of his head and a burst of starlight exploding in his vision. He could still feel a dull, throbbing ache punctuate his movements as he lifted his head higher, and something scratchy, almost to the point of burning, was encircling his torso. It was only when he fixated his gaze on Lenna and Galuf, who were coming out of their own stupors, that he realized the scratching was the rope the pirates had been holding – they had all been bound, arms to their sides, and their weapons had been stripped. Their legs were free, but Bartz figured they couldn't get far with them alone – they had been dumped in a small room with the aforementioned porthole and a single door that he would put good money on being locked – and unless one of his companions had an ungodly hidden talent with their feet, he considered their one exit inaccessible.

Galuf slowly shook the sleep out of his eyes in lieu of his strapped hands, smacking his lips as he wriggled against his binds. "Well, this is a fine how-do-you-do. What genius came up with the idea to steal a pirate ship, anyway?"

Bartz could feel his upper lip involuntarily curling into a half-sneer. "Look in the mirror, Pops."

"...Ohh, my aching head!" Galuf suddenly moaned, slumping against Lenna dramatically. "I can't remember a thing!"

"...And your amnesia oh-so-conveniently returns," Bartz sighed, and Lenna edged away from Galuf as politely as she could manage, blowing a lock of stray fringe out of her eyes. Bartz shook his head, his stomach unclenching slightly as he took in Lenna and didn't notice any visible bruises or trauma – maybe Faris's men had a sliver of honor and had gone easy on her. "Still...I can't believe you're really the princess of Tycoon, Lenna!"

"I'm sorry... I didn't intend to keep it a secret," Lenna lowered her head, sniffling. "You must think terribly of me…"

"It's not that big a deal," Bartz said hurriedly. It really wasn't – in the end, Lenna was still alive and well – for the time being, anyway – and he realized that it wouldn't have mattered even if she was the queen of the entire universe – something inexplicable about her aura had drawn him to her, and it had had nothing to do with royal blood. If he were being honest, he realized he could say the same about Galuf too – he found himself recalling a saying his father always used to say, even though he had never experienced the context to understand the meaning behind it:

 _"There are no coincidences in this world, son…"_

 _If that's true…what is all of this supposed to mean?_

There was just one minor detail that didn't seem to make any sense, however. "But, if you're the princess, why were you going to the Wind Shrine all alone? Don't you have guards and all that fancy stuff?"

Lenna shook her head. "My father is there. He hadn't been gone long when the wind slowed down to almost nothing. I just can't shake the feeling that something terrible is happening – I've got to warn him, no matter the cost. If I had said as much to the guard, no one would have believed me – they would just think I was upset that Father was away. Even if they had believed me, they would make me stay at the castle. I slipped out alone to head to the shrine, but then that meteorite fell, and...you know the rest."

"It's not possible that Galuf here is one of your men sent to tail you, is it?" Bartz asked, and Lenna offered a sad smile as she shook her head.

"I'm afraid not. I know every single man in the realm that has sworn his service to House Tycoon. Our luck has been unfavorable in the past decade, to put it mildly – that has resulted in my father surrounding him and myself with a rather tight-knit group."

Bartz looked away, fearing he had stepped in something ugly. _Unfavorable luck…?_

"I'd remember someone like Lenna, of that I have no doubt!" Galuf grinned, and Bartz couldn't help but be grateful at Galuf's abrupt ploy to shift the mood. "But thanks for thinking I might be someone important enough to guard a princess. It's a nice ego boost."

"So, does that mean Faris's hit job on our skulls didn't rouse any memories out of you?" Bartz asked, and Galuf huffed.

"Not a thing! That would have been terribly helpful – I might've bought the man a drink if it had worked out that way!"

"Well, I fear Mr. Faris has no interest in sharing much with us other than whatever gruesome punishment he's cooking up," Lenna shuddered. "We've got to find a way out of here – and quickly."

"I need to think," Bartz muttered, lowering his chin to his chest. He really couldn't say he had been in worst scrapes than this – being a pirate's prisoner pretty much rounded up the top three worst things ever to happen to him in his short twenty years on this planet – but for reasons unbeknownst to him, he wasn't afraid. Sure, he had been terrified when Faris had first caught them, and perhaps even more so when Lenna revealed her true identity – it had meant he no longer knew what he thought he had known, and he had lost all control over the situation he had briefly convinced himself he had been keeping contained.

 _But maybe I'm not supposed to have any control,_ Bartz thought to himself, closing his eyes. _Maybe that's not what any of this is about…_

If he stilled his own breath, he could hear it – the wind's dying whisper in his ears…

 _"Help me…"_

* * *

Faris collapsed in a heap in his sad excuse for a captain's chair, a rickety heap of oak that had been cobbled together long ago, inherited from its previous owner one night in a drunken brawl when the salty dog had had the audacity to try to crack it over Faris's backside. Under normal circumstances, Faris would relish in his nightly routine, largely unchanged whether he was at sea or back home – he commanded and valued privacy above all else, so even when they were at port, he oftentimes found himself winding down and falling asleep in his hard-won chair, rather than the down-feather stuffed bed waiting for him in his private quarters deep within the hideout.

But tonight was different – an anxiety had set into his bones unlike anything he had ever felt before – it had taken everything he had not to scream at the others to get off the ship as soon as they had finished up with the would-be thieves in the brig. Luckily, having been together for as long as they had, most of the crew could read Faris's undulating moods like a book (despite the fact that most of them were not actually literate), and had cleared out in good time without Faris needing to intervene, all of them carrying the good sense to not inquire when/if Faris would be joining them in the hideout for the evening.

Adjusting the oil lantern on his desk to brighten the otherwise pitch-black chamber, Faris shrugged off his coat, sending it to the floor in a heap of crumpled satin. His eyes silently darting over one last time to ensure the door was locked, he unfastened the first couple of buttons on the sky blue doublet he wore over a white silk shirt, lifting out a tarnished charm on a black leather cord that flickered in the oil lamp's hazy glow. Turning it over in his hands, he pressed his lips together, tracing one feathery stroke of the dragon's wing from the curve of the emerald base to the finely filed tip of the claw.

"Why does the princess of Tycoon have the same pendant as I do?" Faris murmured under his breath. "Another disturbing turn of events…first the wind, and now this…?" After a few moments, he shoved the pendant back down his shirt, using his arms as a headrest as he slumped over his desk, closing his eyes. Try as he might, he couldn't drown the roar of the ocean that was bearing down on his skull – after a few disquieting moments, he realized he had ceased to draw breath – his lungs were burning with desperation, his throbbing heart about to tear itself from his chest. Gasping for air and filling his body with a rush of oxygen, Faris's eyes opened into twin bejeweled slits.

"She said her father's at the Wind Shrine..."

* * *

To be continued in 3: The Crystal's Prayer


	3. The Crystal's Prayer

3: The Crystal's Prayer

"Good morning, darling! Time to meet another beautiful day!"

Bartz rolled over, burying his head in the pillow and clenching his eyes tighter. His hair was sticking out in a million directions, and dried drool was pooled in the corner of his mouth – this would be his perpetual state of existence had he had not Stella around to keep him in line on a daily basis.

"Mom…too sleepy."

"Perish the thought! You'll be bright and awake as soon as you see the sun. There isn't a cloud in the sky today!" A firm, yet delicate hand clenched his shoulder, and he could feel himself lolling about like a capsized boat in a storm-tossed harbor.

"Mom…!"

"Stella – leave the boy for a moment."

Among the shuffling of mud-caked boots against the worn pine slabs boomed a low, familiar voice – despite it only being morning, Bartz thought that he could detect a film of exhaustion coating his father's words – they hung awkwardly in the air like the northern valley fog that never seemed to quite burn away until well after lunchtime. Right on cue, Stella responded to his father's request with a series of shuddering coughs that made Bartz inwardly wince. Was it his imagination, or did she sound even worse than when she had put him to bed just nine hours before? The weight of her hands, which amounted to no more than a sparrow's wings, lifted from Bartz's body as she turned to meet her husband, and a seizing cold wrapped itself around Bartz's heart with stinging tendrils.

 _Wait. Wait! I know this day…This is…_

 _Mom…MOM!_

"Is he back asleep?" he heard Dorgann's voice through the static that had suddenly erupted in his ears. His limbs were pinned to the bed – and his eyelids felt as if 10-ton weights had been affixed to his lashes.

Stella wrapped her arms around herself, taking a few hesitant steps toward Dorgann and peering up at him with a bemused, but melancholy, gleam in the arctic blue of her gaze.

"…You're leaving again so soon?"

More static – it drowned out Dorgann's reply. Bartz gritted his teeth as he struggled to blink, to move a toe – anything – but his body was utterly paralyzed.

It had been so long since he had thought about this day – nevertheless, the memory was as polished as the family silver, and he could remember every second – even the parts his brain was trying to censor.

 _Wake up_ , Bartz begged, the burn of his tiring muscles enough to light his sheets on fire. _This isn't how I want to remember her…not like this._

* * *

"Bartz! Are you OK?"

He shot up with a start at the sound of the Lenna's voice hovering over his ear, and the princess let out an involuntary squeal, nearly tumbling over backward in her bindings. Galuf was behind her, watching the two of them with a grim line drawn across his mouth.

"S-Sorry, Lenna!" Bartz gulped, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. "It was just a dream."

"You were making a racket," Galuf tilted his head. " _Just_ a dream?"

"…Maybe more like a memory," Bartz admitted, giving his shoulders a shake even though he knew it would do nothing to loosen the rope – he had been doing the same pointless exercise right before he passed out from exhaustion the night before in lieu of coming up with a plan to get the hell out of their prison. "It's so strange…ever since I ran into the two of you, I've been thinking about a lot of things that haven't come to mind since I was a child."

"Bad things?" Lenna frowned, and Bartz shook his head, turning away.

"Not bad…but…" He drew in a long breath. He had nothing to hide, but he had to remind himself that he had only known these guys for less than twenty-four hours, and maybe they didn't want to necessarily hear him spill his guts about his family drama. After all, if they made it out of Faris's clutches alive, it was only a short jaunt away to the Wind Shrine, and he most likely wouldn't see them ever again after he dropped them off. He'd have no future business consorting with the Crown Princess of Tycoon, and as for Galuf…well, maybe he'd recover from his amnesia, and would want to hurry back to wherever he came from.

 _I don't want to be anyone's bad memory and make anyone feel sorry for me,_ Bartz felt his insides twist. _I just want to drift through this life like a leaf on the wind…is that so terrible an ambition?_

Suddenly, a stampede of frantic footsteps assaulted their otherwise peaceful cellblock, and Lenna let out a strangled gasp as the three of them stared up at the rattling steel-plated door.

"I don't think they're coming to announce our breakfast options," Galuf gulped.

* * *

Faris twisted his hips, running his tongue over his teeth as he adjusted the tautness of the scrap of ribbon he had procured from the box of junk he kept underneath his ship bunk. It contained a myriad of "souvenirs" from the crew's adventures – collections of poisons purchased in back alleys, baubles from countless kingdoms traded in exchange for safety, even the occasional hastily composed love note from fair maidens who were maybe a little too disappointed their countrymen had been able to come up with their ransom when captured. Whenever Faris needed a good laugh, he'd pull open one of the notes and remind himself that life was simply too ridiculous not to take it for everything it offered him.

"Cap'n, you look fine," the exasperated pirate sighed who had been holding up the waxed cutlass Faris had been using as a looking glass for the past five minutes. "Is somethin' on your mind?"

"A man that takes no pride in his appearance has nary much on his mind, I would say," Faris said coolly, pushing a toss of freshly-washed waves over his shoulder. "Let it be said, however, that I'm grateful you louts gave me a moment's peace to properly bathe last night."

"Aye, your word is law," the pirate simpered. "Besides, you're the best-lookin' guy on this rig, Cap'n…maybe the best lookin' guy in the realm. Are ye trying to impress the princess?"

"HAH!" Faris burst out laughing in an effort to mask the sudden swoop of his heart dropping into his stomach, shoving the cutlass away to indicate he was finally finished looking at himself. "Please. Putting a bit of fright in her yesterday was just part of my natural charm. No further effort is warranted, especially not for some lowly princess. She may be royalty on that forsaken rock beyond the port, but here, she's just another wench."

"Aye," the pirate nodded, grateful to be relieved of mirror duty, and sheathed his blade. "Do ye think one of the men with her is her betrothed?"

Faris had been wondering the same thing himself, and arched a single brow as if to say "Who knows?". He hadn't been able to get a good read on the other would-be ship thieves – both men had seemed fiercely protective of the girl, but the shock etched into their features when she revealed her true identity had not escaped him – either she was a brilliant liar, or they didn't know each other as well as they came off.

Faris didn't much like how he had spent most of the night thinking about Princess Lenna…certainly it wasn't for any obvious reasons, like her looks, or the way her eyes could so swiftly transform from defiant, burning shards of jade, to pools of agony when she was bleating on about her father. No…there was something else…something that made his heart ache with a terrible sadness that he could never recall feeling in his life, yet was burned into his memory like a brand. He could feel the twin dragon wing pendant growing warm against his chest – he had taken special care when dressing that morning to wear his most decadent jacket and scarves to keep it hidden away.

It was Lenna's haunting of his very dreams the previous night that had driven him to make his next decision.

"Prepare to cast off, lads," Faris shouted across the deck. "Set a course for the Wind Shrine."

"Wha!?" the pirate that had been assisting Faris's glass eye nearly popped out. The other pirates stopped their usual morning ramblings and turned toward Faris to make sure they had heard correctly. When he returned their reluctance with a glare that could fell a mountain, they quickly went back to their preparations, pretending as if nothing odd had just occurred. There came a jarring crash, and the door to the lower levels of the ship banged open, Lenna, Bartz, and Galuf being shoved through the threshold by four accompanying pirates and unceremoniously dropped to the floor.

"But Cap'n..." his assistant spun around, nearly knocked speechless at this next turn of events. When had the captain sent for the prisoners? "If we're going to the Wind Shrine, then what about the landlubbers?"

"Untie 'em," Faris said softly, and Bartz, Lenna and Galuf's jaws dropped to the ground, the pirates frozen in place behind them. After a few beats of silence, Faris stomped his foot, sending the pirates into the air like rockets.

 _"I meant, sometime today!"_

"A-Aye-aye, Cap'n!"

They went to work untying the trespassers. As soon as Bartz's hands slipped free from the rope, he leapt to his feet, stretching his hands to the sky and shamelessly extending his digits outward toward the sun – precious, wonderful sunlight he'd never thought he'd see again! Lenna blushed slightly as she averted her gaze from the strip of tanned, flat stomach exposed by Bartz's rising shirt, and lifted her eyes toward Faris, not yet climbing to her feet even as the ropes fell around her like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. "But... _why_?"

Faris tilted his head. "I reconsidered your request. You can go back into the brig if you'd rather."

"N-No, that's not necessary," Lenna blinked, wordlessly taking Galuf's arm as he extended it toward her and using it to lift herself up. "You have no idea how much I appreciate this…"

But Faris had already turned away, barking orders to another cluster of crew members who were gaping at their captain's sudden turn in generosity. "Pull anchor! We sail for the Wind Shrine!"

Bartz, Lenna and Galuf turned toward each other, forming a makeshift huddle as the pirates who had released them reluctantly backed away to tend to their ship-readying duties.

"What just happened here?" Galuf hissed.

"A freaking miracle," Bartz grinned. "Try to sound happier about it, old man!"

"I am happy," Galuf protested, his gaze briefly flicking toward Faris as he hollered at the still-stunned crew.

"Hey! Something wrong with your ears? I hope I don't have to repeat myself! _Well!?_ "

"Aye-aye, Cap'n…!"

"Could it be you have a bit of residual guilt for getting us trapped here in the first place?" Bartz teased, and Galuf didn't reply, instead watching as Lenna gingerly approached Faris, reaching up to tap his shoulder. As if the princess were broadcasting her approach, Faris's hand suddenly flew up, snatching Lenna's without turning around like a Venus flytrap devouring its prey.

"But the wind has stopped... How can the ship move?" Lenna asked, not giving Faris the satisfaction of even the slightest of flinches. Her fingers relaxed beneath Faris's grip, which made Bartz's stomach do an unwelcome flip-flop.

"Full of curiosity, aren't you, lass?" Faris chortled, nodding toward the front of the ship. "Come with me."

"I'm worried about Lenna," Galuf half-whispered as Bartz stared on. "I think Faris's interests lie with the princess more so than actually helping us. We may be putting her in greater danger."

"Really?" Bartz snapped out of his trance. "But we just gotta get to the Wind Shrine, right? We can ditch Faris once we arrive – if King Tycoon is there, he's not going to put up with some warty pirate placing hands on his daughter. Besides, she has us. I'm not going to let anything happen to her. You're with me, right?"

"Bah, of course I'm with you," Galuf snorted. "I still owe Lenna for letting me accompany her – I pray the Wind Shrine holds the answer to my missing memories. But I have to say, you sound a lot like me right now. What's with the sudden pep talk? You that happy to be on this pleasure cruise?"

Bartz shook his head. _Don't be a bad memory._ "I made a promise to you two – I just want to keep it. Is that so weird?"

They watched as Faris lead Lenna to the ship's bow, holding her hand like one would handle delicate china. Pressing two fingers between his lips, Faris released a shrill whistle that echoed endlessly against the mountainside. "Syldra! Come up and say hello!"

Lenna peered down into the water, where a cluster of bubbles began to violently disrupt the surface of the waves lapping against the hull. Just as Bartz and Galuf scrambled over to join her, a fuchsia and periwinkle-scaled dragon's head rose from the water, glimmering beryl eyes reflecting the length of Faris's form as a waterfall of seafoam tumbled down its pointed snout and turquoise-webbed ears, giving its body a pearlescent sheen that dazzled in the morning sun. A long, serpentine neck the color of fresh milk extended toward them, the dragon's maw parting open and exposing twin rows of fangs the size of lance heads. Unleashing a roar that nearly knocked Bartz, Lenna and Galuf over, the dragon dipped its head in deference to Faris, who laughed with child-like glee and threw his arms around its snout – or at least what he could reach of it.

"Beautiful, isn't she?" Faris cooed, and the dragon closed her eyes, nuzzling against Faris's cheek gingerly. "Syldra and I were raised together. We're close as siblings – in fact, I usually refer to her as my little sister!"

"Little sister…" Bartz gulped. " _She's_ the little one!?"

"Aye," Faris nodded. "No matter the state of the wind, Syldra can take us to the ends of the earth – as long as you ask nicely, of course. She's a lady – and there will be hell to pay if any of you treat her as otherwise."

"She is gorgeous," Lenna whispered, and Bartz was taken aback when he saw what he thought were tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. "I never realized that water drakes still exist!"

"I never realized dragons existed in the first place," Bartz gasped. "This is…incredible." He could feel his heart softening toward Faris as he watched the way the pirate lovingly gazed upon Syldra in all of her glory – there wasn't a mote of fear in his body, and Syldra was snuggling up into him like he really was the best big brother in the world. He hadn't met many people who claimed a beast for their best friend, even in all his travels – he was surprised at how pleased he felt to share this one small commonality with Faris.

 _Animals have far better instincts about people than even us humans d_ o, Bartz thought. _If Syldra loves Faris that much…maybe he's not as bad as he's making himself out to be?_

Galuf said nothing as Bartz, Lenna and Faris fawned over Syldra, a dull ache clenching at his temples as the dragon's eyes briefly glared in his direction, stirring a deep-seated flicker of reminiscence that stubbornly refused to surface.

 _Why?_ Galuf closed his eyes, a shiver running down his spine. _Why now…?_

"All right, we're off!" Faris exclaimed, giving Syldra a gentle smack on the snout to dismiss her. The dragon retreated back into the water, letting out one last cry before another explosion of bubbles erupted from the ocean's surface. Faris marched away to take his position at the helm, and the three of them found a safe place to stand back on the deck as the ship began to rumble beneath them – Syldra's unseen fins were churning against the deep as the final anchors were being dragged out of the water by the crew.

"Is everything OK?" Bartz asked, and Lenna blinked away her tears, nodding.

"Yes – I apologize. Seeing Syldra just reminded me of home – of my father." Lenna touched the dragon wing pendant hanging over her dress – Bartz had noticed that she wasn't bothering to hide it anymore since the beans were spilled about her identity.

"You'll be with him soon," Bartz offered. "Syldra will get us to the Wind Shrine before you know it."

"Right!" Lenna smiled slightly. "Thank you both – again. Short as our time together may have been, I shan't forget this – ever."

"N-No problem," Bartz smiled back, even as his heart sunk in his chest at the thought of saying good-bye.

* * *

The morning passed quickly, despite the lack of activities to pass the time on the ship – Lenna made herself useful by volunteering to help the pirates with their chores, much to Bartz's and Galuf's chagrin – although both were pleased that Faris seemed keen on keeping his distance from all three of them. One of the pirates somewhat hesitantly offered to give them a tour of the ship while another crew member was showing Lenna how to play lookout in the crow's nest, which was how Bartz and Galuf had ended up peering through the fog-streaked windows of the captain's quarters when the ship suddenly shuddered and began to drastically slow down. In the distance, Syldra's now-familiar cry reverberated through the cabin, and Bartz could feel the vibrations of her voice through the soles of his boots.

"What's happening?" Galuf asked, and the pirate gave a little shrug.

"We've been sailin' for hours – prolly either the cap'n or Syldra is hungry – or both. Time for a stopover, I imagine."

"You don't keep food on the ship?" Bartz smiled slightly. "Seems…odd, considering how much time you spend on here. Or do you have a rat problem?"

The pirate snarled. "Smart arse, huh? We just came back from a long journey before you'se decided to crash arrr party – normally we would have replenished the ship's stores, but the cap'n kicked us all out after locking you up, and we didn't find out we were leavin' for the Wind Shrine this morning 'til same as you."

"Huh?" Galuf shook his head. "You're saying the _captain_ of your ship watched over a group of lowly prisoners last night? Isn't that one of _your_ jobs?"

"He insisted on it," the pirate spat, and Bartz and Galuf hastily exchanged surprised looks before the pirate could accuse them of any conspiring. "And that makes this the last stop on yer tour. I only showed you the captain's quarters so you knew where to never step out of line. Captain Faris catches any of us in here, friend or foe, and yer dead. Understood?"

"Understood," Bartz said quickly, taking one last glance through the obscured window. The room didn't seem to be anything special – no glittering chests of booty, maps tacked to the walls with giant red X's to mark treasure, or even a comfy chair – why would Faris think that anyone would want to break in in the first place? As Bartz turned away, a plump, furry rat skittered across the hall, scrambling over his boot as he let out a yelp and nearly bashed his head into the ceiling. The pirate smirked, turning and gesturing for the two of them to follow.

"But to answer your question from before, yes, we _do_ have a rat problem…arrrg."

When they reached the surface, Lenna slid down from the crow's nest above with the aid of a rope, beaming with pride as she landed in front of them with the satisfying click of the heels of her boots meeting the deck planks. Her hair was tossed about from the sea breeze, but rather than looking harried like it might have on any other girl, it looked wind-swept and elegant, like a mermaid who had just emerged from the depths to meet her love, and her cheeks had the starting hint of a pink sunburn.

"The pirates' life looks good on you," Bartz laughed, and Lenna shook her head demurely, although she couldn't help but smile at the compliment.

"I'm afraid I have a lot of practice scaling the ropes from sneaking out of the castle – this isn't my first rodeo, you know."

"We should still be careful," Galuf said. "Faris is definitely keeping a close eye on us – Bartz and I just found out he was the one guarding us last night."

"Really?" Lenna's voice dropped, and her smile faltered. "Do…do you think he was serious about ransoming me…?"

"We probably shouldn't let ourselves be separated anymore, just in case," Bartz said. "Especially since the pirates have conveniently forgotten to give us back our weapons. Everyone agree?"

The three of them nodded, and Lenna lifted her head, suddenly painfully conscious of the fact that Faris could be staring them down right now from his post at the helm. She cleared her throat, trying to look inconspicuous.

"Did you hear? We're making a stop at Tule – captain's orders."

"What kind of place is Tule?" Galuf asked. "I can't seem to remember anything about it…Not sure if I've ever been."

"It's a small, but busy village because of its port," Bartz explained. "I've heard it called the gateway to the north. I've passed through a few times in my travels – it's nice enough, but certainly not as big as Tycoon and some of the other capital cities. It's difficult to cross the mountains to get to the Wind Shrine from there – by sea is still your best bet if you want to get there in one piece."

"I can't say anymore for now, but there may also be someone in the village that can help us, if Faris tries anything funny," Lenna whispered. "Just follow my lead if we are able to break away – got it?"

"Roger that," Bartz said, and watched as Lenna's eyes widened slightly, her mouth forming a petite "o". A few moments later, he turned to see Faris standing behind them, a small smirk his greeting. Bartz couldn't tell how much – or how little – he might have heard of their conversation just now.

"Have you been enjoying the hospitality of my men?"

None of them were really sure how to answer, so Faris's possibly-innocent inquiry was met with silence. Shrugging, Faris tossed some hair that had become loose from his ponytail away from his eyes.

"Do whatever you need to do while we're in Tule – just make it quick. We'll need to get back on the road in short order if we're to reach the Wind Shrine before poor weather rolls in."

"That's it?" Lenna blurted, and Bartz and Galuf turned to her in exasperation. What had happened to playing it cool? "You're just _letting us go_?"

Faris barked out a laugh, shaking his head.

"Mayhap you've had a bit of sunstroke, lass. You've no weapons, and I imagine a spoiled little princess like yourself wouldn't think to bring any gil, eh? I trust you won't be going anywhere and that you'll be good little hostages."

"Erg," Lenna mumbled. Faris had been right about the weapons and the gil, at least – but she was raging on the inside about being labeled "spoiled".

 _If Faris thinks so little of us as a threat, then why the heck would he personally guard us last night?_ Bartz clenched his jaw. _None of this makes any sense…which seems to be the story of my life these days._

As the ship pulled into the harbor, the pirates around them began to break into cheers, pumping their fists in the air and stomping their feet so excitedly that the deck shook – for a moment, Bartz thought they had stumbled upon yet another earthquake.

"Grog! Grog! GROG!"

"My word, it's hardly noon," Lenna huffed, still sore from Faris's barb. "Are they really all going drinking?"

Her answer soon came as the ship came to a complete stop, Faris releasing Syldra from the mythril harness that kept her and the ship operating as one so that she could go diving for fish. As soon as the ramp from the ship was lowered, scores of pirates invaded the village, shouting with glee and making a beeline to a clay-roofed establishment that could only have been the local pub. The villagers milling about the port only watched with amusement and didn't run off, which made Bartz wonder if this was a frequent haunt of Faris's crew. After seeing Syldra off, Faris sauntered over to the ramp, giving his "hostages" a wink and a wave.

"Think I'll stop in and have a drink as well. Behave, you three."

"Bye," Bartz said meekly, waving back. As Faris skipped into town, Lenna shook her head, pressing her fingertips to her temples.

"I…I just want you two to know that I never imagined I would cause you all this strife…"

"Save it, sister," Galuf smiled. "Let's make the best of this, eh? Now, should we try to find your mysterious contact?"

"Ah, yes," Lenna nodded. "It should be fairly safe to move around – I doubt many people here would recognize me in this get-up." She brushed the dust off her orange sundress, and smiled slightly. "Please, follow me."

They crossed the blink-and-you'd-miss-it port, which consisted of a single dock that Faris (or maybe Syldra) had expertly navigated their way onto, and a few stands being propped up by tentpoles and blanketed in linen that made up the morning's market – Bartz could see that most of the stands had "sold out" signs nailed up, indicating the catch of the day was already out of reach for latecomers. Galuf peered at the cloudless blue sky, his brows coming together like two dancing caterpillars.

"Faris said something about poor weather…but it looks perfect outside."

"Sailors can read the weather with the subtlest of cues," Bartz said. "My dad used to always know when it was time to return to port when he was out on a boat."

"Does your…er, _did_ your father sail?" Lenna asked, choking half-way through the sentence when she remembered Bartz had told them his father was no longer of this world.

"He did a little bit of everything," Bartz smiled, no offense taken – in fact, he was slightly charmed by her curiosity about a nobody like himself. "And he was good at it all, too. Everyone in our village looked up to him – myself included. But as a kid, he didn't seem all that interested in me following in his footsteps. He always wanted me to stay home with my mom or to play with my friends."

"But in the end, his dying wish was for you to see the world?" Galuf said. "Did that surprise you?"

"A little," Bartz admitted, scratching the back of his head. "It felt like…I dunno, at the end, that he couldn't deny the inevitable any longer – that I was my father's son, and that adventuring was in my blood, just like his. I think his wish was his way of telling me that he understood what I had been wanting all this time, and that it was really OK."

"Oh…" Lenna bit her lip. "…Did you two…leave each other on good terms?"

"Yeah," Bartz nodded, offering her a genuine smile – he could tell that she felt bad about the direction her innocent question about sailing had taken, and that maybe thinking about a father's mortality wasn't exactly a throwaway topic of conversation for her at this time. "Don't get me wrong – my dad and I had a great relationship – better than I think I could have ever asked for, had I had the choice. It's just that..." he trailed off for a moment, crossing his arms as they turned onto a dirt-streaked path – Lenna had led them off the main drag of the village center as they had been talking. "…He didn't tell me a lot. Even in our last days together...I felt as if he were keeping a big secret from me. Does that sound weird?"

"No," Galuf mused, much to Bartz and Lenna's surprise. He looked down at the two youngsters, his mouth twisted in a sad smile. "Hearing you talk about your dad, I can't help but think…he must have really loved you and wanted to protect you…right until the very end. I think you had an even better relationship than you might imagine."

"How do ya figure?" Bartz blinked, and Galuf shrugged.

"I wish I could tell you it was something other than instinct, but that's all I've got to offer. I would do the same thing for my child – if I knew of anything that could bring him harm – I would do whatever it took to keep that evil away."

"But your child would have a right to know what was going on, wouldn't he?" Lenna pressed, her eyes wide. "There's still a level of deception there I am not comfortable with…a lie of omission is still a lie!"

"You shouldn't underestimate the depth – or the foolishness – of a parent's love," Galuf shook his head. "I didn't say it was right…it's just what I know. You may understand someday if you have an heir of your own, dear."

Lenna pressed her hands together, lowering her eyes. "Forgive me for being so blunt. Um…perhaps this is hitting a little too close to home for me."

 _I knew it – she's still shaken about her father,_ Bartz thought. _But what could I possibly do to help?_

 _The Wind Shrine is my only answer…just gotta get her there as fast as possible._

A few minutes of stilted silence later, Lenna came to a stop, crossing her arms as she peered up at a massive burgundy-bricked manor perched on a gentle green slope that looked so idyllic that Bartz was sure a scurry of children with flower crowns and perfectly mussed slacks would come tumbling down at any moment in a game of chase. An ivory-paved path wove through a black iron garden fence, depositing visitors on the concrete front stoop surrounded by a riot of orange and pink lilies. Large, sweeping windows stretched across the upper story, the contents of their chambers hidden behind heavy velvet curtains steeped in various shades of blue.

"Mmm..." Lenna mumbled, taking it all in. "I'm pretty sure that this is Zok's house, but..."

Bartz raised his brow. _Of course_ Lenna would know what appeared to be the richest guy in town – for a moment, he had forgotten just who he was traveling with.

"Someone you know? Is this our ace in the hole for escaping Faris if he tries to sell you off?"

"Yes," Lenna shot Bartz a middling glare at his feigned indifference of her being put up on a pirate's auction block. "Zok is the man who built the Torna Canal."

"Aha," Bartz nodded. That instantly explained the fancy house and why Lenna would have been a friend. The Torna Canal was a marvel of modern engineering – it had been dug out for the ambitious purpose of connecting Tycoon and the scattered villages that shared the continent – such as Tule – to the eastern kingdom Walse. The completion of the canal had invigorated trade and friendship between the two realms, which had previously been separated by impenetrable mountains that only the strongest or determined of people were willing to cross. Bartz had never known the details of the canal's construction, but he had once heard that the engineer behind the project hailed from Tycoon, and that the canal was a source of pride for the kingdom.

The name Zok nor the mention of the Torna Canal seemed to spark any memories within Galuf. He followed silently, taking the majesty of the grounds in as Lenna pushed the gate open and took them up the flagstone path to the house. She slammed the lion-shaped door knocker several times and took a step back, peering up at the door expectantly, her chin lifted at a regal tilt and her back arched just so to lend her an extra inch of height. For a fleeting moment, the sunburned, wind-tousled maiden that Bartz had mistaken for a huntress was transformed once again into the Crown Princess of Tycoon, Lenna Charlotte, first of her name – all that was missing was the tiara and a decadent gown.

But after several minutes and no answer, the wind seemed to promptly deflate out of her sails, and she slumped down a bit, pouting.

"Looks like Zok isn't home..."

"Okay then, let's check again later," Bartz said, gently patting her shoulder. "It will be all right…we're not going to let Faris sell you. You know that, right?"

"…I must have faith," Lenna murmured, but Bartz couldn't tell that was an affirmation of her trust in Galuf and himself, or a desperate prayer for help.

With not enough gil between the three of them to buy even a child's play sword, they quickly decided that their only course of action was scrape together what semblance of a meal they could to gain back some strength for the last leg of their journey to the Wind Shrine. It seemed that the only operating source of sustenance in the village now that the morning market was packing up was the pub that the pirates had taken over. Bartz was so ravenous with hunger that he was daydreaming about those precious berries he had been trying to pick for yesterday's lunch when Boko had quite literally thrown him back into Lenna and Galuf's path – dealing with a few drunken pirates for a hot lunch seemed like a small price to pay.

But as soon as the door to the pub swung open, they were greeted by a pungent mix of spirits and body odor so thick that Lenna's limp hair started to curl. The pirates had taken over every seat in the establishment, and not an inch of table space was left visible – the lacquered walnut was obscured by stacks of glasses, pitchers and crumpled handkerchiefs that were soaking up amber-colored spills. The man tending the bar raised his eyes desperately as Bartz pushed his way through, pre-emptively shaking his head.

"If you're looking for something to eat or drink, these pirates have bled me dry. I don't have a grain of bread left nor a drop of mead."

"You're kidding…" Bartz swallowed, and Lenna stomped up to the bar, slamming her palms down.

"The villainy! Where is Faris? To treat a local establishment this way…!" In the background, a group of pirates suddenly burst into song, some of their voices shockingly on-key as they slogged through a few verses of what would have been a very pretty ditty if it wasn't for the vulgar string of descriptions they were using for the namesake of the tune, an infamous wench with golden locks and a bewitching pair of…

"Whoa, whoa," the man gasped, holding up his hands. "If by "Faris", you mean the ringleader, he's upstairs – we have a few rooms for rent, and he took his food up there. Please don't rile them up...they paid their way fair and square, it's just…um…I can't get them to leave to clean up."

"…I see," Lenna pulled back, clearing her throat daintily. Galuf and Bartz felt a chill run down their spines – it was eerie, seeing Lenna revert so quickly back to her calm, genteel self. Bartz had always heard women could be scary when they were angry, but this was the first time he had ever witnessed such a phenomenon. "Well, perhaps we'll still have a chat with Faris about when we are due to depart."

"He had quite a spread…he might have some food left if you know him well enough to ask," the man frowned, as if just saying the thought aloud was a bad idea, let alone actually doing it. "Sorry I couldn't be more help…"

"Cap'n…!" one of the pirates, half-asleep in a plate of food, mumbled as they scooted by to get to the stairs. "I…I think you're the best…you're my soul mate…"

"O…K…" Bartz blinked. "He must be one of those people that gets mushy when he drinks."

"What kind of drunk are you?" Galuf laughed as they climbed the stairs, and Bartz tapped his chin.

"I guess I don't know – I usually drink alone, or with Boko. Is that bad?"

"It's not _good_ ," Lenna interjected, and Bartz and Galuf couldn't help but laugh behind their hands.

Of the few doorways inlaid in the upper hall, only one was tightly shut, with the rest thrown wide open. They approached cautiously, listening for any voices that might indicate what kind of drunk Faris might be. But when they were met with silence, a look of worry crossed Lenna's features, and Bartz held up his hand.

"Hold on, I'll go check on him."

"Good idea, to only have one of us go," Galuf whispered. "You seem to be able to hold your own in a fight. I'll take Lenna and run if things get ugly."

"Gee, thanks," Bartz sighed, releasing the latch and letting himself inside. The room was simple and well-kept – indeed the perfect place for a traveler to recover from his imbibements, or end a long day of adventuring. There was a small table with a pair of chairs, and as the barkeep had indicated, it was loaded with food – most of it untouched, from what he could tell. The window was thrown open, releasing the stifling summer air that was bundled up with nowhere else to go thanks to the closed door, and curled up on the bed beneath, his eyes shut and a spill of violet ponytail trailing over the down-filled pillow, was Faris. The sun had temporarily retreated behind an influx of new clouds, filling the room with a dingy darkness. So Faris had been right after all – a storm was coming. Bartz's breath caught in his throat as he noticed the turned-over vial next to Faris's hand that was dangling over the side of the bed, filled a quarter of the way with deep blue liquid and the rest in a puddle on the floor, sinking into a cheap wool rug. When he looked at Faris again, he noticed this time that his lips were slightly parted, as if he had passed out mid-sip and let the vial fall away.

 _Poison?!_ Bartz gulped, inching closer and slowly kneeling to the floor once he had reached the bed. Faris didn't stir an inch as Bartz reached down, gingerly picking up the vial and holding it beneath his nose to take a long, quiet sniff. Much to his relief, he tossed the remainder of the vial down his throat, greedily swallowing it down before pushing it out of Faris's way under the bed.

 _Just a Hi-Potion…guess it's been a while since I've seen one of those. They're a pretty pricey medicine to let go to waste like that – Faris must have been exhausted and fell asleep before his head even hit the pillow._

Filled with an influx of energy thanks to the potion's healing effects, Bartz stood back up, figuring that if Faris was going to nap for the foreseeable future that he may as well help himself to some of his stockpiled food. Just as he started to turn toward the table, the sun crept out from behind its cloud cover, and Faris moaned in his sleep, shifting toward the side of the bed that was facing Bartz. The periwinkle silk scarf that had been knotted around Faris's neck was undone, and the shirt underneath unbuttoned half-way down – it was so damn humid that Bartz found himself idly thinking he would have done away with the shirt entirely if he was going to sleep the day away – and the tiniest flash of white gold beckoned Bartz's attention back to the scoundrel spread before him, tucked under a fold of fabric.

"What the…?" Bartz whispered. _White gold…where have I seen such an article as of late…?_

His gaze dropped from the necklace to Faris's exposed breastbone, where a shadow cast by the re-emerging sun imprinted a silken curve in Faris's skin that made Bartz feel as if a colony of butterflies had imploded in his gut. Blinking and resisting the urge to laugh loudly and unnaturally at the strange thoughts that had briefly crossed the circuits of his brain, he searched Faris's face for any sign that the pirate was stirring, and found his feet refusing to lift from the floor and take him away. The sun's rays were speckled with dust motes that were hanging precariously in the air over Faris's storm of locks, almost like a halo, and the light was shining just so to bring out the depths of the ruby jewel tones of his bow-shaped lips. Bartz felt his heart skip a beat as he followed the curve of Faris's mouth to the slender line of his jaw and to the apple of his cheek, bewildered at how smooth Faris's sun-stained complexion was – and at how the smudged coal lined at the corners of his eyes almost looked like raven's wings.

 _What…what the hell is going on with me?_ Bartz quickly turned away, snatching a few random pieces of fruit from the table without paying attention to what he was doing and bolting back outside to the hall. He hadn't realized he had rejoined the others until Galuf finally shoved his way into Bartz's face, snapping his fingers impatiently.

"Bartz! What've you got that goofy look for?"

"Goofy…?" Bartz blinked, and Galuf turned to Lenna, who looked terribly confused.

"Yeah, the kind of look that you get when cupid hits his mark! Isn't that what it looks like, Lenna?"

"Um…" Lenna tilted her head, not exactly sure what it was she was looking at. Flushed cheeks, dilated eyes, and was that… _sweat_? To her, it looked more like Bartz had caught a raging case of the flu.

 _Holy chocobo feathers!_ Bartz grimaced, quickly shaking his head.

"Uh...nothing, I didn't see anything! Must've been a trick of the light or something..."

"For crying out loud, shove over and lemme see what's got you in a tizzy!" Galuf huffed, pushing Bartz aside and disappearing through the threshold. Bartz stumbled forward, awkwardly offering Lenna a stolen apple, which she took without comment, idly turning to explore the empty room across the hall. If their foolishness started anything with Faris, she didn't want to be around to witness the bloodbath. A few moments later, Galuf drifted back outside, softly closing the door behind him and staring at Bartz with wild eyes.

"Great Caesar's ghost!"

"I…I know!" Bartz stammered. "It's just the light, right?" His hand was shaking as he attempted to unpeel a banana, and suddenly thought better of eating it as he brought it to his mouth, quickly tossing it aside – hunger be damned. Maybe there was something weird in that Hi-Potion he had drank?

Galuf averted his gaze, stroking his chin and mumbling. "It's hard to say since I can't exactly remember, but I don't think I've ever been a man who has been ashamed of appreciating the human form…in _any_ form, mind you…beauty is beauty. But…I don't think _this_ a trick of the light." He chuckled slightly, eying the banana that had suddenly offended Bartz. "Just gorgeous...sure haven't felt like that in a spell!"

 _OK, so not the Hi-Potion then_ , Bartz panicked. _Damn. Has Faris always been such a beautiful guy? No wonder his crew is enslaved to him…_

 _Wait, wait…what in the world am I talking about…?_

"Does he remind you of anyone?" Bartz whispered, thinking of the other person who had made him randomly feel so floaty and disconnected from his brain as of late. Galuf was about to reply when Lenna came back from across the hall, clutching the demolished apple core like it was a grenade she was about to launch.

"What in the world are you two going on about?"

They heard a loud screech, and Faris's door suddenly flew open, the starry sleep in his eyes matching the slightest hint of a smile as he stretched deeply and released a yawn.

"Ahh...slept like a babe, I did..."

As he blinked and noticed the two grown men gazing dreamily in the distance with an irritated Lenna glaring daggers through their backsides, the sleep in his eyes was replaced with rage, and he stomped his boot, sending a loud crack reverberating down the hall that made Bartz and Galuf jump a foot in the air.

"What're you two gawking at?" Faris barked. "Get ahold of yourselves!"

Like clockwork, he and Lenna both raised their hands in unison, delivering a slap across Galuf's and Bartz's faces, respectively. Stars exploded in Bartz's eyes as Lenna's fingers connected with his cheek, and Galuf let out a squeal that almost sounded…appreciative.

Faris stepped back disgustedly, crossing his arms over his chest. "I need a little time to myself before we depart. So shove off, you!"

The door slammed shut once more, and Lenna bent down, picking up the discarded banana and blowing any residue off of it before handing it to Galuf, noting that Bartz was still clutching an orange, not that he seemed to realize it.

"What was that about?" Lenna hissed. "Are you going to tell me what you saw in there, or what? Is everything OK?" She lowered her eyes, hesitating a moment as she bit her lip. "Was Faris…erm… _with_ somebody that you've taken an admiration to?"

"What!?" Bartz burst out, the undertone of her query hitting him like a bucket of cold water. The only thing possibly worse than Lenna realizing Bartz had a mild, and what he hoped was temporary, attraction to Faris was her thinking he had instead taken a fancy to a non-existent woman Faris had picked up in the streets. "No, no, no! Nothing like that. It was just a misunderstanding," Bartz's lip curled involuntarily as he watched Galuf shrug and take the banana from Lenna, breaking a huge bite off with his teeth.

"Nothing you need to worry about, dear," Galuf chortled. "I think we were just delirious with hunger."

"Well then for the love of the gods, please eat!" Lenna sighed, turning on her heel. "I'll see you on the ship…I've had quite enough excitement, and we haven't even made it to the Wind Shrine yet."

"Wait, we're coming too!" Bartz gasped, running after her. "We're not supposed to separate, remember?"

As they made their way downstairs and out of the pub, they were shocked to see that the building was not as abandoned as a graveyard – dishes were neatly piled in groups and stacks on the tables, and the barkeep and a waitress who had been hiding until the storm had passed through were now busy mopping floors and clearing away trash.

"If you're looking for the pirates, they went back to the ship," the barkeep said. "It would seem they have timed down to the minute when their boss wakes up from his beauty sleep."

"It's like a hivemind," Lenna muttered. "They're obsessed with Faris, aren't they?"

"Th-that's ridiculous," Bartz laughed nervously. "Why would anyone be obsessed with Faris?"

"Gee, I wonder?" Lenna clenched her jaw. "I'm going to get you to tell me what you saw in there, eventually. If it comes down to it, I will summon you to my coronation, and force you to tell me as my first act of Queen of Tycoon."

"Good luck with that," Bartz winked. "I'm not one of your subjects."

"Huh?" Lenna blinked. "Is that so…?" She had just assumed Bartz was from at least a distant region of Tycoon – true, he didn't have the same clipped accent that those local to the capital carried, nor did he seem to be a familiar face in Tule, but there were plenty of other settlements along the seaboard.

 _I should have gotten to know the man that saved my life – twice – better,_ Lenna thought sadly. _It will only be a matter of hours before we're at the Wind Shrine…and I guess that will be good-bye. If I ask him anything now, it will feel forced, won't it…?_

A nagging little voice in the back of her head whispered that maybe she was a nigh bit more irritable for that very reason.

As they approached the entrance to the port, a clatter of footsteps exploded from behind, and Bartz felt a heavy arm drape over his shoulders, nearly shoving him down to the ground. On his other side, Lenna was also assaulted, shrieking as the dipped under the swallow of a billowing black coat.

"Faris!" Galuf exclaimed. "Nice of you to join us."

Faris lifted his head, flashing the gleam of a crooked canine as he lifted both Bartz and Lenna effortlessly up before they staggered any further beneath his "friendly" hug from behind, snaking closer between the two of them.

"Oho, what's nice, old man? Trying to give me the slip? I think not."

"We wouldn't dream of it," Lenna sighed, gently untangling herself from Faris's clutches and smoothing down her sundress. "How long until the Wind Shrine?"

"Getting anxious?" Faris smirked. "It won't be long from here, lass. My word is as good as the gold draped around that pretty neck."

Lenna's eyes shifted away as her hand protectively fluttered around her dragon wing pendant. Bartz nearly stopped in his tracks, Galuf smashing into his backside and muttering an obscenity not fit for a lady's ears. However, it was plenty fit enough for Bartz, and he felt his ears light aflame as he stumbled to right himself and get out of Galuf's way.

 _Oh my gods, that's it…the flash of gold I saw in Faris's bedroom…_

 _…It's the same as Lenna's pendant!_

* * *

Almost as if Faris could sense that Bartz had something he now wanted to discuss with Lenna alone, he spent the duration of the journey to the shrine glued to the three wanderers, letting his crew take care of the sailing and sweet-talking Syldra.

"Syldra gets lonely tugging the lot of us around, so I always talk to her when we sail," Faris explained as a group of deck-swabbers broke into their third round of Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star near the ship's bow. "She's the one creature in the world that knows all of my deepest secrets…and where the bodies are buried."

 _I can't tell if he's joking or not about the bodies,_ Bartz grimaced, wondering when his next opportunity would come to sneak away with Lenna and give her the scoop on the jewelry Faris was hiding.

 _It might be nothing…but if Faris once plundered something that turned out to be from Tycoon, it could mean Lenna really is at risk…maybe he's got a vendetta against the kingdom that he hasn't let us in on?_

"Land, ho!" came a cry from above, and the four of them glanced up toward the crow's nest, where one of Faris's crew was perched with a scope. "The shrine is in our sights, Cap'n…what's the procedure for disembarking?"

"It will just be the four of us," Faris shouted back, rising to his feet. "The rest of you will stay behind and watch the ship. Just get us to that shrine as fast as possible."

"Aye-aye," the crewmember agreed, tucking his scope away and shimmying down the mast. "I'll inform the lads."

"What's your business in the shrine?" Lenna asked, and Faris spun around, blinking.

"Eh?"

"I mean, you are welcome to come along, but…" Lenna trailed off. "I'm just not sure you'll find anything of value…"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Faris shrugged. "What kind of pirate can I claim to be if I've never raided a shrine?"

"The more, the merrier," Galuf offered, and Faris crossed his arms.

"You act as if I need permission…may I remind you of whose ship you are on?"

"No reminder needed," Bartz sighed. "As you were…"

Once Syldra had gotten them docked safely at the beach, Faris let Lenna lead them away from the ship, despite his earlier posturing about not being the one to take orders. Lenna's chest began to rise higher, her breath coming faster as she broke into a wobbly run and made her approach into the jungle-like influx of trees that were positioned off the shore. Within the heart of the greenery was erected the infamous Wind Shrine, a double-porched rise of crisp marble flanked by sprawling, wide steps that even long-limbed Bartz had to take one at a time. The portico was framed with ionic columns entangled with ivy that determinedly snaked upward and spread beneath the frieze, stretching onward into the darkened depths of the entryway.

The sound of a crackling fire and the dim chatter of voices could be heard echoing from within – they definitely weren't alone, but Lenna yielded no hesitation when she burst inside, her pounding footsteps against the shiny limestone, which had been rendered smooth as glass by time and the exposure to the elements. The racket would surely announce their arrival to whomever – or whatever – was waiting for them.

"Your princess has been seized by madness," Faris muttered, and Bartz couldn't help but notice he had one hand resting protectively over his hip, from which his sword hung. "Is she always this reckless?"

"Yes," Bartz and Galuf deadpanned in unison. From what they could interpret from their first twenty-four hours together with Lenna, the answer was obvious enough.

They ran after her, catching a glimpse of her orange dress fluttering at her knees just as she rounded a left corner toward a rising sheen of light projected against another wall surrendered to vines. To the north, there was a stilled spring that surrounded a flight of stairs to the second level of the shrine.

"Princess Lenna!" a startled voice suddenly screeched, and when Bartz and the others finally caught up, they found Lenna standing in a small chamber with a lit fireplace, marble bookshelves carved into the walls that were stacked with ancient, moldy tomes that would crumble to dust as soon as a pair of hands would crack them open. Three navy-robed figures were towering over Lenna, although they didn't appear to be menacing. The tallest of the three had a gray-speckled beard that reached mid-way to his chest, long white hair that hung in limp waves below his ears, and a gold headband with a solitary sapphire embedded in the center. Although he was wearing identical travel robes as the two folks standing behind him, Bartz could tell just by the man's posture and the way he lifted his tastefully-jeweled hands in surprise that he had to have been some kind of aristocrat. Seeing the distress lined in her features, he suddenly threw his arms around Lenna, and she returned his embrace, closing her eyes and releasing a stifled sob.

"What are you doing here?" the man rasped, and one of the other cloaked figures shuffled closer, pushing his glasses up his nose. His blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and he looked as if he hadn't slept for days – the bags under his eyes were the size of chocobo wings.

"And who are your companions, Princess?"

"Oh…" Lenna pulled back, flicking away the tears that had escaped and taking a deep breath. "Forgive me. This is Bartz, Galuf and Faris – they graciously offered to escort me here."

Faris tried not to snort at the word "gracious".

She turned back to the robed men. "And this is Chancellor Louis of Tycoon, my father's closest advisor, and two scholars from our nation's hall of records – Salvador and Ezra. They're archivists for all matters regarding the Crystal of Wind."

"Nice to meet you," Bartz offered lamely, because really, what else was he supposed to say? The second scholar, whom Bartz assumed was Ezra because he had nodded slightly during that part of Lenna's introduction, was wearing horn-rimmed glasses that took up half his face and had shorn his bright red hair close to his scalp. When it was clear nobody quite knew what to make of each other, Lenna spun around back to the chancellor, the panic rising in her voice once again.

"What's happened? Why are you huddled about here and not at the castle?"

Louis shook his head. It was obvious he wanted to ask Lenna the same thing, but it seemed that years of dealing with the Tycoon daughter had tempered his impulses to ask too many questions – he might hear things about their beloved heir to the kingdom that he otherwise wanted to remain ignorant of. Lenna had inherited her father's curious spirit and her mother's impulsive nature, which combined had given the chancellor his first gray hair at the tender age of thirty.

"Forgive me for not informing you of my departure, your highness. You see, the wind suddenly stopped, which your father had been fearful of…we decided to follow him to the shrine to offer our aid. But there are monsters that have invaded the second floor – we were barely able to cross the threshold and make it back here with our lives."

The blood drained from Lenna's face, and Bartz watched as her fingers fluttered protectively around the dragon wing pendant. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Faris staring at her with great interest. It should have made him feel uneasy, but a slight twitch in the corner of the pirate's eye gave away his concern – was he actually _worried_ about Lenna?

"What about Father!?"

"The king went up to the top floor, as far as we can tell" the chancellor frowned. "But there's no sign of Hiryu, and His Majesty has yet to return."

 _And who is Hiryu?_ Bartz wondered, but he dared not raise the question – Lenna looked as if you could knock her over with a feather.

"Something must have happened to him..." Ezra muttered. Salvador gave him a not-so-subtle elbow jab, but Lenna had turned away, grasping her forearms and staring desolately at the ground. Faris cleared his throat over the awkward silence, which garnered six pairs of curious eyes upon him.

"The crystal's up on the top floor, right? Won't hurt to go up and take a look."

"Faris..." Lenna trailed off, and Louis gave a slight nod.

"Yes, perhaps the monsters would be of no concern to you three. Princess, we will keep you company while they explore."

"No way!" Lenna gasped, side-stepping behind Faris. "I didn't come all this way to _not_ find Father. I can take care of myself – don't worry about me."

"Aye, that you can," Faris laughed. "What do you landlubbers say – up for clearing away some nasties?"

"We haven't any weapons," Bartz reminded him, patting his empty scabbard with a raised brow. Faris burst out laughing, offering a shrug as if that were no fault of his own.

"Aye, that's right – no problem. You can be my lookout, and I'll do the dirty work."

This wasn't a compromise Bartz and Galuf were willing to accept, but before they could protest, Lenna made the call for them.

"Come on!" Lenna pivoted, unbothered by the fact that only Faris was properly armed, and rushed out of the room back in the direction of the staircase by the spring. The scent of the ancient pool was so intense that Bartz could taste on his tongue the staleness of the ankle-deep water as they splashed through it – it had a metallic property that reminded him of the taste of blood.

Upon reaching the next floor, the party was immediately greeted by the monsters the chancellor had warned them about – at first, Bartz had mistakenly thought the floor itself was vibrating and shimmering from the midday sunbeams that were fighting their way through the cracks in the mirror-embedded ceiling, but when one of the "tiles" lifted its head and flashed a pair of glistening ruby eyes with an accompanying guttural hiss…

"White Serpents!" Lenna gulped. "A whole hoard! Where could they have all possibly come from? For monsters to invade a sacred shrine like this…"

"They're not gonna answer you, lass," Faris grunted, launching forward as he effortlessly lanced four bloodied snakes on his blade like he was serving kabob for dinner and swung the sword violently so that the bodies flew off and smashed into the wall to their left. "I'll clear a path, and you three go to the next level. How big is this shrine, anyway?"

"The crystal should be on the level above!" Lenna gasped, ducking out of the way as Faris charged forward in another attack. Bartz grabbed her hand to pull her back to her feet, crushing another snake with the heel of his boot as they fled toward the next staircase. Galuf grabbed one with his bare hands, snapping its neck with a brutal twist that made even Bartz flinch. Weapons or none, Galuf definitely had to have been some kind of warrior in a past life…he didn't know too many common folk that could do _that_. But even as Faris tore through the snakes in a blinding fury in an effort to ferry them through to safety, Bartz couldn't help but notice once his eyes had adjusted to the quivering mass of scales that surrounded them that a lot of other snakes Faris hadn't yet gotten to were already dead – torn up in gruesome shreds and in some cases, picked clean to the bone.

 _Was that King Tycoon's doing when he made his way here?_ Bartz blinked.

Faris stayed behind to block any monsters from following, and Bartz, Lenna and Galuf raced up the steps to the next floor. A trailing scream erupted from their rear, but when Bartz whirled around, he realized he could no longer see down the darkened flight of stairs – and he couldn't tell if the cry had been human or monster. Galuf halted in place, hesitating, but Lenna plowed forward through the threshold, the blood rushing in her ears rendering her deaf to anything else but the pounding of her heart.

"I don't seem to remember White Serpents being that much of a threat…" Galuf trailed off, and Bartz shook his head.

"Maybe not a few at a time, but a whole nest? Should one of us go back to Faris?"

Another scream, this one much louder and closer, erupted in the air, and the two men turned toward the opening of the next level, eyes wide.

"Lenna!"

"S-stay away! Back, I say!"

The decision made for them, Bartz and Galuf burst onto the next level, which was more of the same as the rest of the shrine, the exception being that a pair of mythril-plated doors were facing them, a wooden barricade long-past its prime tossed away hastily on the floor and at current, being perched upon by a massive plum-colored bird with flaming orange-tipped claws and a polished beak that looked as if it could chew through bricks of gold: a beast commonly known as a Wing Raptor. Its impressive wings for which it was named, each the length of a full-grown man, were outspread over a cowering Lenna, whose reflection was shining back at them in the bird's glassy black eyes. A spill of stray sunlight was pouring through a suspiciously Wing Raptor-sized hole, and as the beast turned its throat toward the sky and unleashed a piercing cry punctuated with the regurgitation of a snake vertebrae that clattered to the floor, Bartz suddenly realized who the previous predator of the sudden influx of snakes had been before Faris had stormed the scene.

 _The Wing Raptor must have been drawn to the Wind Shrine by the snake population. Easy pickings for him to get all his meals…not so easy for us to get by him, however – they're extremely threatened by humans._

Having cleared its throat to make room for more dinner, the Wing Raptor turned back to Lenna, beak snapping as it began to lift itself from the barricade. Lenna desperately eyed the double-doors that would take her into the crystal chamber, trying to calculate if she could possibly run fast enough to dodge the bird's assault and make it inside.

But Bartz already knew the answer to that – those doors looked far too heavy for her to move on her own, and she would be in the Wing Raptor's clutches within moments. He dove forward, throwing Lenna down on the floor just as the Wing Raptor made its strike, screeching angrily when it swooped through and made the narrow miss.

"Incoming!" Bartz cried, and Lenna slammed her hands over her ears as the screeching got louder, the bird sailing into a cyclone-like twirl that spiraled above them to ready another attack.

"The crystal is just inside," Lenna whimpered. "My father…something must have happened if he won't come out and help us!"

"You're going to get yourself killed!" Bartz admonished, and she peered up at him, jaw clenched but the light within her gaze relenting and sad. Meanwhile, Galuf was furiously digging through the rubble from the collapsed ceiling, muttering to himself as a cloud of dust rose in his face and clung to the beads of sweat running down his temple. The Wing Raptor was taking an interest in this turn of events, and swooped away from Bartz and Lenna, positioning itself to divebomb Galuf instead.

"Look out!" Bartz shouted, and just as the Wing Raptor let out its warning screech, Galuf rose from the rubble with a jagged piece of mirrored glass the length of his hand that had been smashed apart by the monster, clutching it between two fingers and narrowing his eyes as he took aim. With a fluid flick of the wrist, he hurled the shard square into the Wing Raptor's chest, and a cascade of blood erupted from the wound, the bird's eyes rolling back and fading to cloudy gray as it convulsed mid-dive and crashed into the floor, chest-first. Seconds later, it exploded into ashy dust that clotted with the bloodshed left pooling on the temple floor, and Bartz released a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding in – Lenna slumped in relief against him, tears glimmering in the corners of her eyes.

"Well, well, old man. You're tougher than you look," a voice drawled from the staircase. Bartz looked up as Faris strolled in, spinning his sword nimbly between his fingers and nodding. "I guess you didn't need my help after all."

"We most certainly did!" Lenna suddenly barked, leaping to her feet and banishing her tears. "We were nearly bird food! Where were you?"

"Trying to avoid everyone becoming snake food, I suppose," Faris smirked. "What's all the fuss for? You're obviously fine."

"You rude, incorrigible…!"

"Galuf, that was incredible," Bartz whispered, somehow feeling like if he interrupted Lenna and Faris's brawl that they would both turn and take their rage out on him instead. "You saved our hides."

"It…it was nothing…" Galuf muttered, staring at his gnarled fingers as he clenched and unclenched them. "…Just wish I could remember how the hell I learned something like that… It was like instinct, you know? Suddenly, my body remembered what I was capable of doing."

"Well whatever it was, it was the miracle we needed," Bartz shook his head. "But it seems like we're running through our opportunities for divine intervention at an alarming rate – first being spared by the pirates, and now this?"

"Maybe you're just Lenna and I's good luck charm," Galuf deadpanned, and Bartz flushed, crossing his arms.

 _He couldn't possibly be serious?_

Lenna stomped away from Faris, grasping hold of one of the mythril doors and gritting her teeth as she began to pull. Bartz and Galuf hurried to the other door to help, and Faris rolled his eyes, sheathing his sword and joining Lenna's side, easily easing their door much to her chagrin. As the doors groaned open, swinging outward, Lenna slipped inside the crystal chamber, the breath knocked out of her lungs as she silently took in the catastrophe that had been patiently waiting for her.

"The crystal…"

Bartz scuttled in after her, his heart leaping in his throat as thousands of glittering motes of dust greeted him from the tarnished, ivy-claimed dais that Lenna was paralyzed in front of, her hands limp at her sides. There was no crystal in sight – the best he could make out in the ruins of the dais were several cerulean shards that were tossed about haphazardly, pulsing with a dying light that had rendered Lenna's expressionless complexion a pale, sickly blue – if he hadn't been able to detect the faintest of breath drawing into her chest, Bartz would have thought she was a standing corpse.

"…It's shattered?" Bartz whispered, and Lenna nodded, sinking to her knees and clasping her mouth as she released a strangled wail of grief. Galuf and Faris slipped in the chamber, eyes wide and feet faltering as the crunch of decimated crystal rang out from beneath their boots like a death knell.

 _No…this can't be happening…_ Bartz swallowed, closing his eyes. _We were too late?_

 _No,_ ** _I_** _was too late…if only I had done something to get her here sooner…_

The shards that had been spilled upon the dais began to pulse deeper, igniting the four travelers in a cerulean aura that made Bartz feel as if he were being embraced by a pair of warm, fluttering wings. His heart began to beat faster against his chest, and he felt a familiar sensation course through his veins once more – that comforting, bubbly feeling that made him felt as if he could float away with a kick of his feet. When he tried to open his eyes, he found himself fighting against a gentle, ethereal force – all of the muscles in his body had gone slack and relaxed – he had lost control of everything except his lips and his mind.

"What the…" he whispered, for he could raise his voice no higher. In reply, a bell-like voice resonated within his mind – even without being able to open his eyes, he knew that the source of the voice was nowhere within the crystal chamber – maybe not even from within their plane of existence. The mysterious voice was neither male or female, was benign yet enduring. The softer Bartz's heartbeat faded, the louder the voice rang in his ears.

 _"Help me…you alone hold the essences…the power this world needs to survive…"_

 _It's the wind…_ Bartz gasped, a shiver running down his spine. _This voice…I've heard it before…calling me…urging me forward…ever since Dad died…_

"Help me understand," Bartz whispered, although he could no longer be sure if his words were being spoken aloud. "What are these essences you speak of?"

" **Courage** , the essence of flame..."

A spark of red light ignited in the crystal chamber, drowning Faris in a ruby aura that sent a roar of fire seething through his veins.

" **Devotion** , the essence of water..."

The sickly pale blue of Lenna's complexion gave way to a divine sapphire mantle, washing over her skin like the crash of a wave into a pearly shore.

" **Hope** , the essence of earth..."

A mote of green light traced around Galuf's still form like the spreading bloom of a flower – it rushed from his feet like the roots of a tree drawing in nourishment and climbed his legs, torso, arms, settling in a halo of emerald at the crown of his head.

 _"And the last…_ ** _Passion_** _, the essence of wind..."_

A whirlwind of energy encircled Bartz's body, infusing his very marrow with a cascade of fireworks that made his tendons swell with a power he had never felt in all his twenty years – not even when he was in the prime of his training on the cusp of adulthood. His eyes snapped open, and he stared in wonderment as swirls of citrine mist, as fine and glittering as the crystal shards that blanketed the chamber, wove between his fingers, his arms, his legs, and danced before his eyes like fairy lights. He gently extended his hand, grasping at the wisps of light and watching it melt into his skin, igniting it with a golden sheen.

"What...?" Bartz gasped, his voice booming loud and clear once more – he could _feel_ his breath reverberating against the chamber walls, each echo fusing him with greater and greater power.

"What's happening?" Faris asked warily, wrapping his arms around his chest.

"Feels warm..." Galuf murmured, his eyes still closed. "I've felt this before…somehow…somewhere."

"Are _these_ the crystals' essences?" Lenna blinked, turning in a circle and squeaking in surprise as the rush of sapphire energy followed her movements, flowing with the ease of a rambling river.

 _She said "essences" – Lenna could hear the voice too!_ Bartz pressed his hand to his mouth, shaking his head. _Does that mean the others could hear it as well?_

"Le...nna..."

A deep, melancholy voice filled the crystal chamber, and Lenna's head snapped up, her breath catching in her throat as a towering figure dressed in sweeping blue robes, armor and a platinum helmet adorned with dragon's wings flickered into focus before them on the dais, a lance clutched in one hand and the other extended outward, the palm facing up. The crystal shards that had been scattered along the dais rose dutifully, flying into the figure's hand as if they had been summoned.

"Father!" Lenna exclaimed, throwing herself at the foot of the dais and sending a cloud of crystal dust exploding into the air. Faris cut a glance toward the reunited pair, arching one sweeping violet brow.

For what was allegedly one of the most powerful men in the world, the King of Tycoon looked awfully…transparent. Not exactly what Faris was expecting – although he couldn't be sure what it was he _had_ expected in the first place.

 _That's Lenna's father?_ Bartz thought, biting his lip. _Something doesn't seem right here…is Lenna alright?_ She was gazing up at Tycoon like he was the holy grail, completely oblivious to everyone else's reaction to his sudden appearance.

Tycoon's gaze swept sadly over Lenna before he focused his attention on the rest of his shell-shocked audience. "Listen, and listen well – for I have little time here with you. Simply put, you four are the chosen ones, the warriors of light...bearers of the four crystal essences."

"Father..." Lenna shook her head confusedly, as if she hadn't just heard the impassioned plea of the mysterious voice and wasn't glowing with a magical, inhuman aura. "What do you mean?"

Tycoon hesitated – Bartz could tell he was struggling not to rush down the dais and join Lenna at the base, where she had been respectfully maintaining her distance – although Bartz was sure that was through no choice of her own, and that something in the aura that had taken over her body had kept her from moving closer. Instead, he turned away and lifted his palm that held the crystal shards, which began to float and orbit like miniature moons trapped in a planet's gravity. "What I mean is this: The wind crystal has already shattered. The other three crystals are in danger as well. You four _must_ protect them, before they meet the same fate!"

"Protect them from what?" Galuf asked, his voice shaking. _Why, why did he feel like he would know the answer before Tycoon even spoke?_ _It was on the tip of his tongue…if only it wasn't for this blasted amnesia…!_

Tycoon lowered his head. "An evil presence is awakening... One that wishes to return everything to darkness."

Suddenly, a swirling cloud of purple mist surrounded Tycoon, swallowing him whole and leaving only the floating crystal shards unscathed. Lenna screamed, the aura around her body dissipating as she launched herself onto the dais, throwing her arms around the mist. However, she merely sank through it and stumbled to the other side of the dais, watching with dismay as the mist floated away into the thickening shadows borne by the dying crystal's light and disappeared from sight.

"Father!"

Tycoon's voice drifted over them from the darkened corners of the chamber, fading away with each passing second. "Go forth, Light Warriors! Save the crystals..."

The crystal shards that had been floating in Tycoon's hand suddenly fell back to the floor, a desolate clatter exploding in the air as Lenna sank to her knees, clutching the dragon wing pendant hanging from her neck and clenching her jaw in a sorry attempt to hold back her sobs.

* * *

To be continued in 4: Seeking the Light

* * *

7.26.18: Sorry for the lack of updates - I was working through hospice care for a sick pet and afterward, left the country for an extended stay in Japan. But I'm back now, and ready to go back to regular updates! Thank you for your patience... I've gotten emails and questions asking if I am going to stick with this story until the end, and I assure you I will!


	4. Seeking the Light

4: Seeking the Light

 _Warriors of light…_

 _Protect the crystals? Us? How could we possibly…?_

Bartz's legs had turned to flan, his gaze idly drifting over the others to see if they were in the same state of utter disbelief as he. Faris was holding himself, watching Lenna fall apart on the dais with a sympathetic gleam in his narrowed eyes, the fading ruby aura that had embraced him igniting the undertones of his violet locks as if he were standing before a sunset. Galuf was half-sunken to the floor, his hands in his hair as he stared at his streaked reflection in the tarnished dais, eyebrows crinkled in contemplation. The bruises on his cheek he had obtained in the accident with the meteor had faded away – had the emerald light healed him?

Lenna bowed her head, a low moan escaping her lips as a single tear slid down the curve of her cheek and splashed upon the dais. The crystal shards shimmered, rising into the air once more and slowly floating toward each of them – that was when Bartz noticed for the first time that that there were four total. He extended his hand, drawing in a shaken breath as one nestled itself into his hand, and when he closed his fingers around it, he could feel what felt like the pulse of a new life embedding itself within his body – with each beat of his heart, wave upon new wave of strength fortified his core, strengthening his legs and transforming his wilting spine into a lance of steel.

Lenna lifted her head as her crystal shard danced before her eagerly, a flop of her hair falling in her eyes. Her voice cracked as she swallowed back a sob. "...What are these?"

"Guess they're pieces of the crystal..." Bartz murmured, turning his shard over in his hand.

 _"They are crystal fragments..."_ The same gentle, commanding voice that had spoken to them before once again came to life in his mind. Galuf, Lenna and Faris glanced up at the ceiling simultaneously, and Bartz knew that they could hear it again as well.

 _"And stored within, the power of warriors of legend… Light Warriors of a fallen age who were once blessed by the crystals, the very same as you. A noble knight. A compassionate Monk. A curious Blue Mage. A clever Thief. A brilliant Black Mage. A pious White Mage. Their souls, one with the crystal…and now at your calling."_

Bartz shook his head, his eyes blinking back at him in the reflection of the fragment. "The crystal...it's lending us its power...? But how are we supposed to use it?"

Galuf stuffed the fragment in his pocket, letting out a resigned sigh. For a moment, he had dared hope the crystal's light would have gifted him a memory – King Tycoon's words had lit a spark in his mind that had made him feel as if he were on the brink of remembering something critical – but the spark had failed to catch upon the thick web obscuring his memories and had snuffed itself out - _poof!_

"...For now, let's get out of here. No use in waiting for the monsters to find us. Lenna, is there a way out you know of?"

Lenna silently pulled herself from the ground, clutching her crystal shard and watching the spot where her father had disappeared before her eyes. Faris approached her, cautiously resting a hand on Lenna's shoulder and offering a half-sympathetic smile that nearly made Bartz fall over in shock.

"Lenna...one thing at a time, eh, lass? I'm sure you have a million questions. Let's just start with the old man's for now."

She gazed up at Faris, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly as she nodded in agreement and pointed to the north.

"There should be a warp panel to the outside behind the altar. Let's use it to make our way back to Chancellor Louis – I must brief him on what has happened here."

They followed Lenna around the dais, and sure enough, a glimmering tile of blue light was awaiting them – Bartz recognized the teleport magic that he had often encountered in caverns and other unusual spots. His dad had once explained to him that it was a common practice for adventures that had a grasp on time magic to bless a piece of the topography they were exploring with a Teleport spell so that they had an easy means of escape if something untoward happened. Depending on the strength of the caster, the spell could remain usable for decades – even hundreds of years – by others who happened by it, whether they wielded time magic or not.

They used the warp panel, returning to the outside world in the blink of an eye and finding themselves in front of the sprawling Wind Shrine once again. Unbeknownst to them as they had been battling for their lives inside, the storm Faris had predicted would come to pass had ravaged the region, the forest of trees around them drooping with heavy and sudden rainfall and their feet sinking in the concrete-like sands of the beach that stretched up to the shrine steps. Back inside the shrine, Chancellor Louis and the two scholars that had accompanied him were sitting at a marble-topped table in the chamber they had taken residence in when the four of them reappeared in the threshold. Louis immediately leapt to his feet, bowing deeply before Lenna but not hiding his effort of peering anxiously behind her.

"Princess! You've returned! And your father…?"

Lenna looked away, clenching the crystal shard tighter. "We spoke briefly, but…he was spirited away before long. I'm afraid I know not where he is now."

"Oh Princess, I am so sorry," Louis sighed, rising back to his full height. Inwardly, alarm bells were going off, but he was determined to remain calm in Lenna's presence – the poor girl looked as if she had walked through a hurricane, and his rising panic would do her no good. "But thank the heavens you are back here with us now. What of the crystal? Did the monsters do it any harm?"

"The crystal…" Lenna hiccupped, holding up the crystal shard and shaking her head. "…Is no more. It was shattered when we arrived…!"

The others took turns explaining what had happened to spare Lenna any more angst, with little interjection from Louis and the others. When Bartz ended their tale with the voice telling them that the crystal shards contained the souls of previous warriors and were now theirs, Salvador nodded as if Bartz had just shared a perfectly sane and rational story about a night at the pub with the lads, and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I've heard about something like this in my research – long ago, when I was just starting my role as an archivist with the royal family. There have always been tales and rumors of warriors who were blessed by the crystals' light – legends, if you will, about those with rare ability and strength. Many of those legendary figures have even allegedly crossed the halls of Castle Tycoon – for example, Princess Lenna, a master of white magic that had fallen in love with one of your ancestors and bequeathed a staff to the kingdom upon her death that could supposedly heal the sick without the use of magic."

"Oh, yes…I suppose I have heard that story before as well," Lenna mused, pressing her fingers to her lips. "But I always just thought it was a romantic fairytale they told children."

"It's hard to say," Salvador smiled slightly. "Fairytales like that are oftentimes borne of real-life events and twisted just so to make them entertaining or into morality lessons."

"Another rumor reads similarly about one of your ancestors on the Highwind side of the family, Princess," Ezra added, pushing his glasses up excitedly. "Your father comes from a long line of Dragoons – warriors that fight alongside dragons in the air – many of them have been said to be blessed by the crystals as well, and that was what gave your family the ability to tame dragons with such ease."

"Tycoon has dragons?" Bartz blinked. _No wonder Lenna was so taken with Syldra…!_

"My father has a wind drake named Hiryu," Lenna explained. "But I haven't seen Hiryu since Father left…there was no sign of him upstairs."

 _Ah, so that's who the "Hiryu" was that they were talking about earlier_ , Bartz thought. _A wind drake…so King Tycoon flew here…_

"If Hiryu is anything like Syldra, then he's perfectly stout and is probably off taking care of his master," Faris offered, and Lenna smiled up at him thankfully.

Galuf cleared his throat as a means of directing them back to the mystery at-hand. "So, if I am understanding what you are saying correctly…what we heard wasn't a trick? We can really use the crystal's powers, even in this state?" He held up the shard, tilting his head. "And those powers are those combined of the people who have been blessed by the crystal's light in the past?"

"Exactly," Salvador nodded.

"But how do we use that power?" Faris grunted, turning his crystal shard upside down and shaking it like a canister of salt. "These were glowing with some sort of light before, and now they're as dull as glass."

"Well, we don't know the answer to that," Ezra blinked. "But we can certainly rush back to Tycoon's archives and research it for you – there might be an answer there."

"We haven't the time to figure that out," Lenna frowned apologetically. "Father said the other crystals were in danger…we must warn the other kingdoms that keep them right away!"

"And how do you intend to do that, Princess?" Louis asked gently. "With the Crystal of Wind shattered, the seas will soon become inhospitable to any ships – it will be a miracle if we can even get back to Tycoon. And perhaps you were not aware of this, but His Highness had ordered that the Torna Canal be locked down upon his departure – that is your only way to the kingdoms of the east."

"The seas'll be no problem with my vessel, wind or none," Faris bragged. "Don't ye worry about that."

"I'll figure something out," Lenna said hurriedly. "I can ask Zok for help, too."

Louis sighed, lowering his hands. He knew it wasn't worth arguing, even if Lenna was proposing the impossible. And the more time they wasted in the shrine, the less likely their chances of being able to return home. Soon the stilled wind would cease to lift another sail ever again…

"Faris," Lenna spun on her heel, clasping her hands together. "I have but one more favor to ask…will you please take me back to Tule so I can find Zok? He's a friend of our kingdom that lives there and an engineer – he created the canal and would have the key so I can get through."

"Consider it done," Faris said calmly, and Bartz and Galuf tried their best to keep their jaws off the floor in front of the chancellor. For whatever reason, Faris was acting cool about the whole hostage situation, and neither of them wanted to rock the proverbial boat if they were truly at his mercy for escaping the shrine.

"I'll return home soon," Lenna promised, turning back to Louis and clasping his hand in her own. "But in the meantime, if you did want to research the crystals, I'm sure any additional information you might gleam would only help."

"We will do so as soon as we step upon Tycoon soil," Ezra nodded. "But aren't you worried about not being able to use the crystals? It could be dangerous."

"I'll be OK," Lenna smiled. "I got this far, right?"

"Please watch over her," Louis lowered his head, and Bartz felt his cheeks redden. Was that a royal order, or just the request of what was now probably the closest person Lenna had to a guardian?

Once they were back on the ship, Faris promptly abandoned them to give the orders to his men to ready the ship for a reverse course to Tule. Lenna drifted toward the bow, where Syldra was preening about and waiting for Faris to bring her a snack, biting her lip to hold back her tears as the dragon snaked her head over the deck and nuzzled against Lenna's outstretched hand.

"Poor Lenna…" Galuf sighed, taking one last longing look at his crystal shard before tucking it away in the pouch hanging from his now weapon-less belt. "I'm sure she doesn't know what to make of any of this."

"Neither do I, quite frankly," Bartz murmured, not exactly comforted by the blazing heat he could feel pressing into his chest from the otherwise lifeless shard he had tucked in his tunic pocket. He turned to Galuf, forehead crinkled in concern. "But how are you doing? I know you were hoping to get some answers at the shrine – did none of your memories return?"

Galuf shook his head, offering a half-smile. "Not a one – but I still believe there was a reason I needed to be there. When the crystal spoke to us, I felt something stir inside me – but it just wasn't enough to wake me up. If only there had been a little more time…"

"What are you going to do?" Bartz frowned. "It sounds as if Lenna is determined to make her way out east."

"I'll go wherever the crystals are," Galuf shrugged, as if the answer were obvious. "If a shattered crystal had me on the brink of remembering something, maybe a whole crystal will do just the trick!"

"That's…an optimistic thought," Bartz replied, resting his hands on his hips. All of his zest for adventure had been squeezed out of him like a chambermaid wringing out a wet rag – his mind kept replaying the crystal's voice, but another memory was clawing through the surface of his mind, and he couldn't help but fear he was being sent a warning from the world beyond – Dorgann's voice was drowning out the crystal's pleas, and Bartz found himself paralyzed with the effort to recall what it was that made him hesitate so…

"Bartz!"

He glanced up, only to see Lenna standing before him. She was tracing the dragon wing on her pendant and gazing up at him with an almost motherly concern that made his heart suddenly twinge for Stella – once again, being by Lenna's side surfaced emotions in his heart of hearts that he thought he had long tucked away.

 _Why was that?_

"Sorry," Bartz shook his head. "What's up?"

"Daydreaming again, huh?" Lenna smiled slightly. "I was just asking if you and Galuf would want to join me at Zok's house once we arrive in Tule – I'm sure if I ask, he'll prepare a meal for us and offer some respite before I retrieve the key to unlock the canal."

"Oh, uh, certainly," Bartz forced himself to laugh. "A proper meal would be best before I hit the road again."

"That's what I thought," Lenna nodded, pressing her fingertips together. "I've invited Faris as well."

"Ah, why'd you go and do that?" Galuf pouted. "He's just gonna rob Zok blind and gallivant off to get drunk."

"That's not very nice to say," Lenna mewed, as if she hadn't ripped Faris a new one in the Wind Shrine but a few hours ago. "I think Faris is really trying."

"Yeah, yeah, well, I'm gonna have one eye on him regardless," Galuf snorted. "Your naivete may have charmed Bartz, but I guess I'm going to have to be the voice of reason around here with you kids."

"What are you going on about?" Bartz flushed. "There are so many incorrect things in that statement that I don't even know where to start."

"Hee hee hee," Lenna giggled, absentmindedly flicking a stray tear away from her eyes. "Thank you – despite everything that's happened, just listening to you two cheers me right up. I'll certainly miss that."

 _Well, there you have it,_ Bartz thought as he watched Lenna stroll away, his gaze eventually drifting down to his boots when she had disappeared beneath the deck. _She doesn't expect me to come along…maybe it is best if I just find Boko and be on my way._ The crystal shard had stopped emitting any warmth, and Dorgann's voice boomed ominously in the echo of each beat of his heart. Little by little, the conversation Bartz was never supposed to hear was coming back to him, feeling his chest with a sinking dread.

 _Maybe the Crystal of Wind made a mistake…if I were truly a warrior of light, I'd know how to use these alleged powers, right?_

 _Up until now, I've always known what I must do…my heart has never failed to guide me, and the wind was always at my back…_

 _But now? Now, I just don't know…and the wind has fallen silent…yet I can hear Lenna calling my name…Galuf and Faris, too…_

 _Mom…Dad…_

 _What were you keeping from me? And does it make me a danger to my new friends…?_

* * *

As it turned out, Galuf hadn't need to worry about sharing a meal with Faris – upon docking in Tule, he informed Lenna that he had business to attend to at the pub and would not be joining them. For once, she didn't argue or pry, much to Bartz and Galuf's relief, and Faris soon abandoned them on the ship to do his own thing with his crew, who were chanting for grog before Syldra had even parked them in the harbor.

On the stroll to Zok's manor, Bartz finally remembered he was going to discuss his encounter in Faris's chamber, and told Lenna how he had glimpsed a flash of the mysterious pendant Faris was wearing while he had been passed out. But much to his chagrin, Lenna didn't seem all that impressed.

"Bartz, you do realize that white gold is quite common for jewelry, yes?"

"Huh?" Bartz tilted his head. "I've never encountered the stuff until I met you! Kind of a weird coincidence, don't you think? I mean, sure, I didn't get a good look at the necklace itself, but…what is he trying to hide in the first place?"

Lenna made a face, and Galuf tried to keep himself from bursting into laughter.

"You haven't been around a lot of people that wear jewelry, have you?"

"I've been around plenty!" Bartz huffed. "I'm a pretty worldly guy, you know. I'm not some country bumpkin just because I didn't grow up in a castle."

"Sure," Lenna nodded, the corner of her mouth twitching. "…Listen. If this was your cover-up story for whatever you did with Faris in that room, I'm not buying it. You're not a good liar."

"WHAT!?" Bartz exclaimed, nearly tripping on the pathway. "What are you…um…implying?"

Lenna looked away, her cheeks blossoming with a spill of pink brighter than her hair. "It's nothing to be embarrassed about…Faris is a beautiful man. I've been thinking about it – I suppose I can't deny the chemistry between you two…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Bartz shook his head. "That's not chemistry, princess – that's pure conjecture on your part."

"I dunno," Galuf whistled. "I kind of feel it too."

" _You!_ " Bartz whirled around, shoving his finger threateningly in Galuf's face. "Don't pretend you're innocent in all of this!"

"Ugh, my head…" Galuf muttered, massaging his temple. "Brain is getting all jumbled…"

"Oh for the love of the gods," Bartz groaned, smacking his palm against his forehead. "Fine, forget I said anything. This is NOT the hill I wanna die on."

By the time they had finished arguing, they had nearly reached Zok's doorstep. Lenna knocked with impatience, mentally willing the blush in her face from picturing Bartz and Faris having a romantic moment to drain away before anyone could possibly answer the door – that was, if anyone _would_ answer the door this time. But much to her relief, she heard the clicking of locks, and a few seconds later, the door flew open, and Zok's hulking frame filled the threshold, his onyx eyes widening when he took in his surprise visitors. He was dressed in evening robes of dyed olive cotton, a chest-length blonde and gray beard neatly tied up in braids for sleep, and a matching head of hair swept back in a ponytail. His neck was the size of Bartz's thigh, the muscles bulging with veins when his face blossomed with a grin upon seeing Lenna.

 _Jeeze, when Lenna said this guy built the Torna Canal, I didn't think she meant by hand,_ Bartz blanched. _He looks like he can snap us in half. No wonder she thought he could save us from Faris before…_

"Ohhh, Princes Lenna!" Zok exclaimed, instantly claiming her in a hug that made her nearly disappear in his billowing robes. Lenna giggled and hugged him back, although her arms could hardly fit half-way around his girth.

"Zok! It is good to see you."

"Yes... It's been a long time," Zok patted her back, releasing her and giving Bartz and Galuf a once-over with one raised brow.

 _He's probably wondering how weaklings like us could possibly keep Lenna in line_ , Bartz inwardly groaned to himself.

"Zok..." Lenna began, her eyes wide. "I have a favor to ask. We must go to Walse, so we need to pass through the Torna Canal."

Zok instantly lost interest in Bartz and Galuf and turned back to Lenna. "Walse? Is this on business for your father, my dear?"

"Well, sort of," Lenna hesitated, but Zok shook his head – it wouldn't have mattered what her answer to the question was.

"I'm afraid that ever since the wind crystal was destroyed, the beasts in the canal have multiplied like rabbits! It is much too dangerous to enter!"

"How did you find out about the Crystal of Wind?" Lenna frowned. "I know my father ordered the canal to be closed before he left for the Wind Shrine, but…"

"Ah, well…" Zok scratched his head, chuckling nervously. "Chancellor Louis may have paid me a visit already."

"What?!" Lenna cried. "Impossible! How could he have beaten Faris's ship here with the state the wind is in?"

"Apparently, one of the scholars he was with has some talent with time magic," Zok relented. "It seemed that it was a no-go with their ship, and that they decided to Teleport home instead. But I guess they felt a pit stop here in Tule was warranted, first – now I suppose I understand why."

"The trickery!" Lenna muttered, gritting her teeth. "No wonder Louis was so lenient with me…he was planning on cutting me off at the knees all along!"

 _Only Lenna would think someone trying to protect her was the same concept as sabotage,_ Bartz sighed.

Zok held up his palms as Lenna's rage fumed a hole into his welcome mat. "Regardless of the state of the canal and the fact that it is crawling with monsters, I-I seem to have lost the key somewhere... I'm sorry I cannot help you with that part."

"The key has been lost…?" Lenna frowned. "Do you suppose the chancellor "borrowed" it?"

"Let's not throw out accusations just because of my absentmindedness," Zok said gently. "Old age is hell on the mind, darling. Still, since you've come all this way, won't you at least stay the night? It's the least I could do."

Lenna stared down at her feet, barely nodding.

"Wonderful," Zok smiled, sliding an arm around her shoulder. "Cheer up – a warm meal will help – it sounds like you've had a rough day. I want you to introduce me to your friends, too."

"Thank you," Lenna said softly. Bartz wanted nothing more than to take her hand and tell her it was all for the best, but he knew she wouldn't see things that way, and held his tongue.

"Then, follow me!" Zok exclaimed, infusing yet more false cheer into his voice, and gestured for everyone to come inside, closing the door behind them. Bartz's feet sunk into plush carpets as the outside world gave way to draping gold sconces filled with tapered candles and elegant portraiture hanging on the plaster-backed walls of Zok's entryway.

* * *

After a long evening of feasting and some light introductions and catching up (Lenna didn't seem to be much in the mood for talking, not that Bartz could blame her), Zok led the three of them to a damn-near palatial guest suite on the second level of his house that contained four double beds, each perfectly made up with crisp white sheets and the paneled windows already cracked open to let in the cool night breeze. He explained since that he oftentimes had guests from Castle Tycoon stop by that he always had accommodations on-hand, just in case. Bartz and Galuf were secretly thrilled to be sleeping in a proper bed for the first time in the gods only knew how long, but Lenna took it all in stride, silently flopping down on one of the beds and kicking off her shoes like she did this every day. After Zok had bid them goodnight, Bartz watched as Lenna simply rolled over on top of the made bed and abruptly passed out.

"I'm sure she's plotting her next move," Galuf whispered as he and Bartz stood with their backs to each other, stripping out of all but their most essential garments so that they could get a proper night's sleep. Bartz's gaze kept jumping to Lenna's bed to make sure she wasn't stirring and wouldn't wake up to something she might deem vulgar or unpleasant on his person, although a small part of him that he didn't really understand was pre-emptively disappointed that she might feel that way in the first place.

Once he was down to his slacks and nothing else, Bartz hopped into bed, snuggling against the cool silk of the sheets that soothed his wind-burned skin and feeling as if his eyelids had suddenly gained twenty pounds apiece. He heard Galuf muttering something, but couldn't make it out before falling asleep himself, the steady ticking of the grandfather clock stationed in the corner of the chamber his makeshift lullaby.

* * *

Another morning, as sunny and cloudless as the last – summers in the valley in which Lix was enveloped were as close to storybook perfection as one could encounter on this planet.

For once, Bartz had awoken before Stella's song-like siren call bidding his return from the world of sleep. Maybe it was the excitement of having Dorgann back home – Bartz had heard him sneak back in their cabin in the middle of the night, but Stella was so out of it (she slept like the dead, seemingly the only trait her son inherited from her) that Bartz was sure she hadn't even noticed before he fell back asleep. But that morning, he could hear them quietly talking over their tiny kitchen table that always barely fit the three of them and the piles of food Stella liked to serve at each meal. There had once been talk of Dorgann commissioning a bigger one, especially if Bartz were to ever have a little sibling, but as Bartz approached adolescence, talk of expanding their little family gradually fell away, and in its absence were increased hushed references to Stella's failing health.

Dorgann took a sip of the tea Stella had prepared, his favorite blend that could only be ground from the leaves of a flower local to the region called a Moon Lilly. Once a month, Bartz and Stella would meander down to the fields where they grew and pick the best flowers for drying and brewing – it was the closest he would get to adventuring in the valley as a child, so he always had looked forward to that time more than one would expect of a chore-filled day.

"The construction of the tower is finally complete – the king seems to now admit that this is best for the Crystal of Water's security. It was admirable for him to take the approach of opening his castle to the people and turning it into a sanctuary for the lost, but it put the crystal in too much danger. I'm glad he's finally found some sense."

"It was good of you to ensure its safe transportation," Stella replied, a note of disappointment lacing her words. "Do you think this will be the last you'll have to be away for a while?"

Bartz cocked open one eye as the scraping of a chair shrieked in the air. Dorgann had pushed his seat away from the table and kneeled at Stella's side, clasping her hand in his.

"I'm sorry, but you know what must needs to be done – the transportation of the crystal could have invited saboteurs. The crystals must be protected at any cost!"

"I know…" Stella trailed off, and Dorgann squeezed her hand tighter.

"Stella – our promise still stands, right? If anything should happen to me, never tell Bartz about the crystals... They aren't his burden to bear. What I've done…I never want my sins to influence the direction his life should take."

Stella chewed on her chapped lip, wincing as she inadvertently broke a blood vessel and invoked a crooked river of red to run down the curve of her mouth.

"Oh, darling...please don't say things like that..."

* * *

Bartz's eyes slowly slid open, and he found himself greeted by darkness, his heart hammering inside his chest.

Next to him, Galuf was snoring peacefully, one leg hanging out of the blankets and his hair half-pulled out of its low ponytail, slung about the pillows carelessly. He sat up, twisting around in bed to check on Lenna. She was left almost exactly as Bartz had last seen her before falling asleep, her mouth in the shape of a small 'o' and her eyes clenched tightly shut. A sliver of moonlight was draped over her bed, revealing a spread of raised goosebumps on her arm.

He stood up, dragging one of his blankets with him and gingerly laying it over Lenna's body so that she would start to warm up. When she didn't move after a few moments, Bartz let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding and turned to leave the room.

When Zok had originally led them upstairs to retire for the evening, Bartz had noticed a pair of French doors at the end of the hall that opened up to a balcony steeped in moonlight. He headed for it now, figuring it was far enough from their bedchamber to not disturb anyone with his fidgeting. The dream – no, the _memory_ – had been so vivid that he felt as if he had been transported back in time. As soon as he had opened his eyes and found himself back in his past, he knew that the scene about to play out before him was the one he had been struggling to recall in the aftermath of the Crystal of Wind's destruction. Never in his life since had he thought about the crystals on anything more than a superficial level – the tone of his father's voice that morning was all Bartz needed to hear to understand that the subject he was eavesdropping on was forbidden to his ears, and he had been so keen to keep his taboo knowledge a secret that he did his very best to suppress the memory by his own volition. Even as a child, he knew to be true what Lenna had observed just hours before – he _was_ a terrible liar – so the best thing he could do to hide his spying was to truly forget it ever happened.

Slipping through the glass doors to reach the balcony, Bartz relished the cold air that roused his senses back to life and leaned over the railing, his skin growing taut against his muscles from the chill.

"The crystals..." Bartz whispered to himself. "Now that I think of it, they're the reason Dad was always away..."

 _But what was his connection to them? And stranger yet…why was it deemed such terrible a fate that I might get involved?_

* * *

Zok watched quietly from the end of the hall as he saw Bartz exit the bedchamber and make his way to the balcony. He had been unable to sleep much, even with as much wine he tried to take in at dinner to ease his discomfort with Lenna. It was obvious the girl was in pain – Chancellor Louis's description of the situation didn't seem to entirely do her despair justice – but he was firmly in agreement with the chancellor that no harm should come to Lenna at any cost. As far as anyone understood, she was now the final heir to the Tycoon dynasty, and if she were to be lost, an entire kingdom could be thrown into chaos – not to mention he would lose the closest person to a daughter he had ever known, selfish as it was to think that way.

 _"I know Lenna is doing what she feels is right,"_ Louis had plead to Zok earlier. _"But I don't care what a crystal, or anyone else, may tell her – the path she has set herself upon is surely marked for death, and the transients she has allied herself with surely cannot have her best interests at heart – not like you or I. Please, whatever you do – don't let her get to Walse, and tell her to come home!"_

Bartz had left the bedroom door slightly ajar, and Zok pushed it open the rest of the way, taking a peek inside. Bartz and Galuf had been respectable and given Lenna her own side of the room, but it had become drafty from the drastic drop in temperature. Zok noticed that one of the blankets on Bartz's bed was missing and had found its way over to Lenna, and he felt something warm spill in his chest as he took in her blanketed form and slid the window behind her bed shut.

"…Father...I'll protect the crystals...promise..." Lenna mumbled, rolling over just as Zok stepped away and turning her back to him in the bed.

He left the guestroom, following Bartz outside onto the balcony. Bartz merely glanced over his shoulder as Zok made his approach, offering a slight nod before turning back to his stargazing.

"What's the matter, Bartz?" Zok asked. The boy had not spoken too much at dinner, but when he had, he had been witty and cheerful – Zok couldn't be too sure, but he thought perhaps Bartz was trying to perk Lenna up – they may had only known each other for a few days, but he already seemed to understand that Lenna's life had just been turned upside down in a catastrophic way – the way only those touched by tragedies of their own could sense.

"Nothing..." Bartz sighed, blinking away the starlight in his eyes. "I just was reminded of my folks... They died a while back, though..."

 _Aha, so he is an orphan…he understands Lenna's loss, after all._

"What are you going to do now?" Zok questioned. "You understand the seriousness of Lenna's situation, right? She's the last heir to Tycoon – a burden she has borne alone since her elder sister passed away quite some time ago, and now a reality she absolutely cannot ignore in this time of crisis, as much as she may want to."

He could tell by Bartz's slight flinch between his shoulder blades that he inadvertently revealed information the boy perhaps might not have known.

"I do understand," Bartz said slowly, swallowing back the bitter taste that had filled his mouth at the mention of yet another loss for poor Lenna. "But I also wonder…if people are mistaking Lenna's _devotion_ for recklessness."

"Oh?" Zok blinked. "What do you mean?"

"If the warning King Tycoon imparted upon us is true, then this goes so much further beyond just the boundaries of Tycoon," Bartz said softly. "And I think Lenna knows that if the world around Tycoon loses its way, the kingdom will eventually fall regardless of it having an heir or not. Her devotion to Tycoon is so closely bound to her heart that she accepts she has to leave everything she knows and understands behind to save it." Bartz pushed some hair away from his face, frowning. "It's human to want to take the path of least resistance through life – to me, that's what's actually reckless."

"It sounds as if you've done some thinking on this subject," Zok chuckled, and Bartz lowered his head, smiling slightly.

"I thought that once the wind stopped, I had lost my guiding voice. It was easier when I could just drift along on the path laid before me. But when I got to thinking about my parents tonight, I realized that something else inside of me has been guiding me this entire time, even when it meant going against their wishes for me – and that for better or worse, every decision I've ever made in my life has taken me to this moment."

"And what is this moment telling you to do?"

"To follow my passions – my desire to understand about this world what it was my parents didn't want me to understand, and a new one, too – to protect what has become important to me. Maybe my mind doesn't entirely comprehend just what that is yet, but my heart seems to have an idea, so I think I'll just run with it and see where it all takes me."

Zok dug his hand into the pocket of his robe, rustling around for a few moments before his fingers closed around the slender slip of forged iron and extended it toward Bartz's back. "...Here. Take it."

"Huh? Take what?" Bartz whirled around, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the starless balcony behind him.

"The key to the canal," Zok dropped the key in Bartz's hand and closed the boy's fingers over it before he could resist. "With it, you can open the gate and travel to Walse, the kingdom that holds sway over the Crystal of Water. I was worried about Lenna after Louis stopped by, so I hid the key, but..."

Bartz stared down at the key in disbelief, and Zok pulled him into a sudden bear hug, nearly squeezing the breath out of Bartz's lungs as he arched his back to gasp for air.

"Please!" Zok begged. "Take care of her!"

"I…I will!" Bartz rasped. "But…can't…breathe…!"

"Ah, sorry," Zok laughed, releasing Bartz and depositing him back on the ground. Bartz doubled over, desperately gulping air to fill his lungs as he dizzily slid the canal key into his pocket. "But would you do me one favor? Please don't give Lenna the key until after you leave – I don't want her telling me off for lying to her about losing it to be our last moment together for quite some time. Is that OK?"

"Sure," Bartz nodded, smiling a little. He could certainly relate to that kind of request.

 _Don't be a bad memory._

* * *

The next morning, Bartz observed that Lenna seemed to be in a comparably much better mood – she was even humming a bit from the attached washroom as she bathed and dressed.

"She must have already come up with another plan," Galuf grinned, and Bartz laughed, casually feeling for the key in his pocket as he smoothed his shirt down. Per his promise with Zok, he would reveal his acquisition after they had left the property.

"Where do you suppose Faris has gone?" Bartz asked. "Do you think he's part of Lenna's scheming?"

"I have little doubt," Galuf replied. "As for his whereabouts, the man seems to be half-bloodhound; if he wanted to find us, he surely he figure out quickly what residence in this dinky little town a man like Zok would reside in. He's probably sleeping something off in his favorite room at the pub."

Zok bid them adieu with a packed picnic breakfast that made Bartz's mouth water at just the sight of the bulging basket and a consolatory pat on Lenna's back.

"I'm sorry I cannot do more for you, dear," he explained, and Lenna hugged him tight, shaking her head.

"Never fear, Zok – your prayers for the safety of the crystals and the royal family are surely enough. Be well, and know that Tycoon is forever in your debt, per usual."

"Be well," Zok sighed, glancing up at Bartz over Lenna's shoulder before reluctantly releasing her. She flashed one last smile that could surely bring any rival to his knees, lifting her hand in a good-bye wave as they took off. When Zok's gate was securely latched behind them, Lenna's face fell and she let out a dreary sigh, deciding she had no appetite and handing the picnic basket off to Galuf. Without any prior discussion, the three of them automatically fell in step toward the direction of the pub.

"Lenna, what's wrong?" Bartz blinked at the abrupt one-eighty shift in her demeanor. "Surely, you haven't given up yet?"

"I'm trying to steel my resolve," Lenna said softly. "But all I could think about last night were the inevitable facts in our case: The wind crystal has shattered. Right now, the only difference is that the wind has slowed, enough so that ships will no longer be able to cross the ocean and relations between the people and kingdoms of the world will falter and go back to their isolationist ways. But soon enough, it will stop blowing completely. And in a few years, the air will grow stagnant, and the birds and wind drakes won't have any place to fly..."

"Surely there has to be a way to reverse it – the wind crystal may be shattered, but it still lives on," Galuf frowned, holding up his shard, and Lenna shrugged, shaking her head.

"I know not if the shards will do much for us. All I know to be true is that Father said that we had to protect the three remaining crystals."

"And those three crystals are…?" Bartz thought back to the story the crystal had told them about the essences, and Lenna completed his query.

"Fire of Karnak, water of Walse, and earth…well, I'm not sure where that one is. I confess I'm not as knowledgeable about the crystals as someone in my position perhaps should have been."

 _Give yourself a little credit,_ Bartz thought. _I'm sure up until a few days ago, you had only to worry about normal princess stuff, like what tiara to wear to a party or whatever it is princesses have to deal with on a daily basis._

They had reached the pub, and Lenna seemed to hesitate before stepping inside – she had reached for the latch to the door, but paused mid-way, her head lowered in thought.

Bartz leaned against the threshold, closing his eyes. "If those were lost too, then..."

Lenna bit her lip. "At first, nothing would happen. But it wouldn't be very long before the earth began to decay...the seas dirtied and rivers ceased to flow, fires lost their heat and the world became dark and cold... It really would become an unlivable world...it would spell the end of humanity and every other living creature as we know it."

Galuf bit into an egg sandwich he had unearthed from the picnic basket, waving it around in the air with his mouth half-full. "The answer is simple, then: We've gotta protect the crystals!"

"Did that trigger any of your memories about why you were pursuing them in the first place?" Lenna asked hopefully, and Galuf shook his head, swallowing.

"Nope... Doesn't matter. I'm still gonna help! It's true that I thought perhaps seeing a crystal in the flesh would wake something up inside of me, but it's like you just said, Lenna – this is bigger than any of us. I've decided now that there is no point in remembering my past if I can't save our future. If someone out there, somewhere, is looking for me, I have faith that they'll find their way to me. In the meantime, I think I've found my way, _with you_ – if you'll have me. Whatever plan you have cooking, I wanna be part of it."

"Really?" Lenna gasped, her eyes watering. "I cannot thank you enough…"

"Well said, old man!" a voice chortled from above. Bartz, Lenna and Galuf looked up, only to see Faris leaning over a tiny balcony that he had crawled out of a window to plant himself upon. His hair was down and dripping wet, hanging over one shoulder, skin glistening in the morning sun and his elegant coat fitting his body like a glove. Bartz got a queer feeling in the pit of his stomach from a fleeting thought of likening Faris to a mermaid and hoped Lenna wasn't watching his face at that very moment. What he didn't notice in his own moment of quasi-panic was Galuf wearing a moony stare of his own.

Faris flipped his hair back, grinning. "I'm coming along too. Plus, we still have to find Lenna's father. That's what you were coming here to ask me for help for, right, princess?"

A slow smile blossomed on Lenna's face – Faris was right on the money, like they shared a mind.

"King Tycoon? But he disappeared into thin air," Bartz frowned. "How can…?"

Faris shook his head, wagging his finger. "He still lives, I feel it in my bones! Never for a moment believe otherwise!"

Lenna turned to Bartz, brushing her fingers over his. "Bartz...I know it is a lot to ask – but the only conclusion I've been able to come to since last night is that I must break through Torna Canal and warn Walse of what is to come, regardless of the chancellor's wishes. Will you come with us? I know none of us understand exactly what happened at the Wind Shrine, but…" She wove her fingers into his, squeezing desperately. When their eyes met, he could see all of his very own fears, questions, dreams, and the tiniest fleck of hope, glimmering like a crystal shard – reflected back at him in that jade gaze.

 _Whatever I was before…aimless wanderer, carefree adventurer, orphaned heir of the great Dorgann Klauser…_

 _Maybe that's still who I am…but there's something else, now…something inside of me that wants the answers I've been denied all my life…are those answers to be found in the light of the crystals Dad forbid me to pursue?_

 _And have the stars really seen me blessed enough that it's a journey I no longer have to take alone?_

Bartz scratched his head with his free hand, blushing slightly at Lenna's touch. "Before, I admit, I was just coming along for the ride...it's hard for me to deny someone help when I've been asked. But seeing everyone here..." he turned to Galuf, Faris, and then back to Lenna, finally squeezing her hand back.

Lenna's eyes widened, and at first, Bartz thought he had said something wrong, but she quickly reached into her pocket, retrieving her crystal shard. It had begun to emit the ethereal cerulean light they had seen in the shrine, pulsing rhythmically like a heartbeat. As if on cue, the others pulled theirs out as well, revealing them to be in the same state.

"The crystal shards..." Lenna whispered.

Bartz held his to his chest, closing his eyes. "We were given power to protect the world... The power of the wind crystal rests solely in our hands…" his eyes snapped open, and he grinned. "So yeah, of course I'm in! We've got some crystals to save!"

"Sure enough, I knew Bartz would come around!" Galuf grinned. "I guess that makes us real light warriors now! So, let's be off already!"

"Well, I hate to be a cod in the rudder, but there are some logistics we need to take care of, first," Faris drawled, and everyone stared up at him, their temporary elation that had united them popping like a soap bubble. Faris held up two fingers, tapping them as he spoke. "First, if your intention is to sail to the Torna Canal and beyond, I haven't the supplies to get us that far – we need to stop back at the hideout and prepare for the journey. Second, my scoundrel's ears picked up on the careful choice of our fearless princess's words… " _break through_ " the canal, which tells me we're not exactly engaging in a palace-sanctioned activity. Have we a plan?"

"Erg," Lenna began, but Bartz grinned, fetching the key from his pocket and holding it up for all to bask in its glory.

"I've got that part covered!"

"Bartz!" Galuf exclaimed. "Where in tarnation did you get that key?"

"Does it matter?" Bartz winked, and Lenna sighed in relief, shaking her head. Of course, there was only one person in the world who could have willingly handed that over to Bartz, and she feared her heart would swell to incurable proportions and burst with happiness if she spent too much time imagining what might have been discussed. Maybe someday, she would ask Bartz about what happened – but for now, she wanted to revel in the mystery of it all.

"I'll order my men to prepare us for departure, then," Faris beamed, twisting a lock of hair around his finger. "First, we return to the hideout to replenish our supplies and map our route to Walse. Then, to the canal!"

* * *

Back on the ship, Faris had fetched a map from his chamber and had spread it over a chipped, but sturdy table nailed to the floor in a room below deck that he had dubbed the "war room". Above, his crew and Syldra were plotting a course back to their hideout, which he made a point to circle with a quill he had haphazardly drowned in some ink that splattered over the seas north of Tycoon.

"We'll be here," Faris began, dragging the quill northeast from the freshly-inked hideout buried in a mountain range by the bay where they had first tried to abscond his ship over to another pair of mountain ranges that surrounded a small strip of water. "The Torna Canal is here."

"Walse is a rather spread-out region," Lenna said, dragging her finger east from the entrance of the canal to a peninsula. "The crystal itself is housed in the Walse Tower, which was constructed nearly a decade ago solely as a fortress for the crystal after King Walse opened up his castle to the villages of his region."

 _That's right,_ Bartz remembered. _In my dream, Dad assisted with the transportation of the crystal to that new tower._

"But the tower is well-guarded, because the Walsians have a high dependence on the water crystal to function as a nation," Lenna added, wrinkling her brow. "So it will be impossible for us to march right up to it, unlike the Wind Shrine, which is open to anyone. We'll have to sail further southeast first and meet with King Walse to explain ourselves." She pointed to a tract of land that was bordered by the sea to the north and impenetrable mountains to the south. "It's a little out of the way, but it's our only route to ensure we'll get access to the crystal."

"Should be no more than a day's sailing time if Syldra keeps her pep up," Faris nodded, releasing the map so that it curled itself back up into a roll. Bartz slid down in his chair a bit, pushing his fingers through his hair.

"I hope Boko's OK," he sighed, the mention of Syldra getting him to thinking of his own companion. He hadn't realized he was whining out loud until it was too late and he was met by Lenna and Galuf's sympathetic stares. Faris inquired as to who – or what – a Boko was, and Bartz explained how he and Boko had met.

"Nearly right at the start of my travels, I came across an injured chocobo that had been separated from his flock. It turned out that the clearing I had found him in was being stalked by a rogue Lamia, and the other chocobos were afraid to come back to rescue him. After I slayed her, I was able to heal him from her poison and send him back to the others…but he didn't want to go."

"That's almost unheard of!" Lenna exclaimed. "Chocobos are extremely bonded to their flock – they stay with their families for life, right?"

"Usually," Bartz smiled. "So I camped out for a few days, hoping the chocobos would eventually win him over so that I could leave – I was worried that another Lamia might come for revenge and attack them again unless they moved on. But day after day, the chocobo refused to go back, and one morning, I just decided I need to leave and see what happened – it only occurred to me that perhaps the rest of the chocobos thought I was the very threat I was trying to protect them from. But sure enough, a few hours into my journey, I turn around and see myself being stalked by…"

"…Boko!" Lenna squeaked, and he nodded.

"We came to an understanding that day…it seemed we both desired to see the world and leave behind the known – I guess even chocobos get wanderlust sometimes. And ever since, we've been partners and best friends."

"Animals have the purest souls of any creature on this planet," Faris said softly, a glazed sheen washing over his gaze as he leaned his cheek against his hand. "I've never known an animal to betray a man, abandon him, or exact undeserved violence. Not like our fellow humans…we're despicable, every last one of us."

"Not all humans are bad at their core," Lenna countered gently. "You've seen a lot of the world, thanks to Syldra…surely you can't say for sure that's true?"

"I've seen enough," Faris shook his head. "I've _experienced_ enough, too."

"Hmmm…" Lenna stared down at her lap. "…Well, I at least agree with what you say about animals. I feel as if I've said nearly the same sentiment to others many times. I know Hiryu would give his life for my family – that's why I have to believe he is out there, somewhere, protecting Father from what may have come…"

"Aye," Faris conceded, eying Bartz in an almost tender way that made the hairs on the back of his neck rise. "I hope your friend Boko is OK too. I suppose you'll be together soon enough, eh? Left him behind when you went trespassing in our lair?"

"Yeah," Bartz smiled slightly. "Thought he'd be safer outside."

"Well, you were right at least one thing that day," Faris smirked.

"What will you tell Boko when we get back to the hideout?" Lenna frowned. "It will be too dangerous to take him along, right?"

"I'm afraid so," Bartz nodded. "But we won't be too far from Tycoon – do you think if I tell him to run there, someone at the castle would take him in?"

"I certainly do," Lenna smiled. "We can even attach a note to him with my command if you want. It may give away my intentions not to return to Tycoon, but we'll be long gone before anyone can stop us, anyway!"

"Thanks, Lenna," Bartz smiled, already feeling as if a weight were being lifted from his shoulders.

"Putting your reputation on the line for someone's wayward kid…" Galuf shook his head, grinning. "That's a serious commitment, Lenna."

"Oh, come off it," Lenna giggled, but Bartz couldn't help but notice how she quickly swung her chair in the opposite direction so that no one could see her face. As Faris packed up his supplies so that he could re-join the crew on the deck and check on their progress, Bartz thought back to Zok's slip about Lenna losing an elder sister, and wondered if that played a role in her need to be close to her animal companions, like Hiryu – maybe it had even shaped some of the undying devotion to her remaining family and her people that the crystal had recognized as her core essence. He wondered too if she had said anything to Galuf about her sister in their short time together without him, but quickly came to the conclusion that she most likely had not. She didn't seem like the type of person to dwell on the past, or to even bring it up willingly.

Bartz closed his eyes, leaning his cheek against his hand.

 _Lenna, Galuf, Faris…_

 _These people are my fellow warriors of light, souls that I have pledged what might just be the rest of my existence to – yet I know nothing about them, and they nothing about me._

 _I should be terrified of what is to come, should be wary of these strangers, but…_

 _My heart hasn't felt a calm like this since…_

 _…Well, since the day Dad died._

* * *

To be continued in 5: What Lies Beneath


	5. What Lies Beneath

5: What Lies Beneath

Galuf watched as Bartz and Lenna waltzed off the ship, not in any hurry to join them thanks to the lead-like lump that had taken occupation in the hollow of his skull. He could barely make out the frenzied activity of the pirates behind him – they were scrambling to settle their vessel within the hidden cove that would lead them back to the pirates' hideout so that they could break out their next round of spirits. Faris was barking a few final commands as they pulled in, promising the crew's freedom after the chores were done.

"'Tis good to be home," Galuf heard someone grunt from the mast above, and the sound of clodhopper boots smashing into the deck rang out a few moments later.

"Aye, though I wish I knew what the cap'n was thinkin'…he's hardly been himself since we left that shrine. What do ya think happened?"

Another pirate had joined in, and they both roughly jostled past Galuf with nary an apology as they made their way to the gangplank. Galuf had long lost sight of Bartz and Lenna now – the two of them had been swallowed by the hallows of the hideout, on their way to find Boko so that Bartz could deliver the bad news to the bird about his imminent departure.

 _Home…_ Galuf swallowed, the heavy throb of the ache in his head resonating with each heartbeat. _Is it truly that I cannot remember…or do I even have a home to remember in the first place?_

 _Why would I be wandering the fields of Tycoon if I had no business with Princess Lenna or the king? The Wind Shrine is their domain, and it felt right to join Lenna there…but then nothing happened. I felt like I was on the cusp of remembering everything…but now…_

The final motes of light the crystal had offered had faded away to nothing, leaving them only with the promise of new powers none knew how to wield, and the prophesy of the horrid future they were soon to inherit.

 _But I can't let any of that deter me from my mission,_ Galuf coughed into his hand, wincing at the taste of the stale air burning in the back of his throat. _Whatever that may be…_

"What's the deal, tomcat? Can't keep up with your kittens anymore?"

Galuf turned from his lookout over the landing of the ship, only to see Faris smirking down at him. Ignoring the way Faris's mint-stained glare ignited a spark within his churning stomach, he shrugged, replacing his look of contemplation with his usual carefree smile.

"Even I know when to take a hint – seemed like they were awfully anxious to find Boko. Just wanted to give them a little alone time, you know?"

"No, I _don't_ know," Faris said sourly, and before he could stop himself, Galuf burst out laughing.

"Jealous much?"

"H-Hardly!" Faris glowered, and spat in a perfect arch to his left as if to prove his point. "It's not like that at all."

"Sure," Galuf winked, turning away, and Faris marched up beside him, slamming his palms upon the railing and forcing his face so close to Galuf's that his breath tickled Galuf's mustache.

"I'm serious, old man! Don't even pretend to know the first thing about me, or I'll be cutting that smart tongue out of your mouth and feeding it to Syldra!"

"Oh, hush," Galuf cooed. "Is that any way to talk to a fellow light warrior?"

That was enough to shut Faris up. He pressed his lips together, stymied for a comeback, as Galuf reached into his cloak and retrieved his crystal shard, holding it up between them like a miniature shield.

"Anyway…how can I pretend to know you when I hardly know myself? You're the least of my worries, _captain_."

"…Huh?" Faris blinked, resting his hands on his hips. "…Jus' who the hell do you think you are?"

"I don't know," Galuf breathed, laughing nervously as he caught Faris's confused stare in the reflection of the crystal. "I'm an amnesiac, as it turns out."

"W-What? For how long?"

"Hard to know for sure, but at least since I met Bartz and Lenna. So, we're coming up on day three now, I suppose. The last thing I can remember is opening my eyes and seeing the two of them standing over me. Next thing I knew, we were making our way to the Wind Shrine. Lenna wanted to find her father, and something inside told me I needed to come along – so I did."

"You're pulling my leg," Faris scoffed, and Galuf shook his head.

"Nah. I'm learning you're not so into the jokes; I wouldn't dream of it."

"Amnesia…" Faris trailed off, turning away from the accusing glare of the crystal shard. "And you just _decided_ to follow Lenna?"

"Hey, I'm not the only one! She convinced Bartz, too. He was just minding his own business until he ran into the two of us…kinda feel bad for the kid, getting wrapped up in all of this…"

"What…what asylum did the three of you escape from?" Faris shook his head in disbelief. "So, my suspicions were correct…you looked shocked when Lenna let it out she was royalty because you had no flipping idea – ya'all hardly know each other!"

"We just happened to have the same goal of getting to the Wind Shrine," Galuf smiled, and Faris huffed.

"No…I think you're insane! What if you have family out there looking for you? You're old enough to have kids – maybe even grandkids. What if they're worried? What about a wife or a lover?"

Galuf faltered as he slipped the crystal back in his pocket. The hurt that laced Faris's barbs did not go unnoticed, but he dared not say anything inflammatory in response to further provoke him. Maybe Faris was a light warrior, but he was still first and foremost a pirate – and they still hadn't gotten back their weapons, so they weren't exactly on even ground – not yet, anyway.

 _Why is Faris getting himself worked up over this hypothetical family I've abandoned?_

He made the decision to steer their heated conversation in a different direction. "Faris…you're a man of the sea…right?"

"And that has to do with _what_?"

"The fact that such a lifestyle requires great instincts, right?" Galuf raised an eyebrow. " _Something_ told you to take us to the Wind Shrine the morning you let us go free. You don't think it's the same intuition I felt rattle my bones when I met Bartz and Lenna? Isn't it possible that perhaps the crystal _itself_ called the four of us to that shrine?"

"I…" Faris snorted and turned away, his ponytail bobbing up and down over the curve of his spine like a dangling fishing line. "I couldn't say."

"Maybe it's the same instinct that tells you Lenna's father is alive?"

Faris's cheeks flushed, and he closed his eyes. Galuf could see sprigs of red from where the blood had rushed to the tips of Faris's ears.

"Aye…you may have a point."

 _Hmmm…_ Galuf quietly tapped his finger against his forearm. _I see I've hit another nerve._

The two of them stood there in silence, Galuf's gaze innocently investigating the rich tapestry of Faris's coat as Faris stared down at the deck, his fingers pressed to his lips. Their temporary peace was shattered when a familiar shout came from the entrance to the hideout – Faris and Galuf both whirled around and spotted Bartz and Lenna running toward the ship in a panic, Bartz's eyes the size of saucers as he struggled to find his breath.

"What happened?" Galuf gasped, his fatherly (perhaps?) instincts for Bartz kicking into high-gear once again and his spat with Faris forgotten.

"Boko, he's…" Lenna gulped, and Bartz shook his head, stumbling a few more steps forward before leaning against his knees and gulping for air.

"…He's gone! We found his footsteps throughout the cavern…like he had been looking for me…"

"But they stopped," Lenna sniffled, swiping her hand across her snotty nose. "They just suddenly stopped, and we looked everywhere, and…"

"This was all we could find," Bartz caught his breath, lifting a single golden feather between his shaking fingers, and Galuf winced.

But before he could even dream up a consolative reply, Faris swept by him, his chin cocked in the air and all traces of vulnerability squashed beneath the march of his boots as he trampled down the gangplank and stepped between the two of them, grasping them each by the wrist.

"No time for tears, scurvy dogs. My men know these caverns like the back of their hands – they'll know where to look."

"T-Thank you," Bartz sighed, relinquishing the feather to Faris as the two of them broke away from Lenna and retreated back into the hideout. Lenna watched after them, biting her lip before turning back toward the ship and gazing up at Galuf.

"It will be OK," Galuf said tenderly, making his way to Lenna and slinging an arm over her shoulders. She sank into him, nodding as she blinked away budding tears. He held her steady while they walked back to the hideout together, Faris's words echoing in his mind.

 _"What if you have family out there looking for you?"_

"First Hiryu and Father go missing, now Boko…" Lenna whimpered. "Can all of these bad things just stop happening at once?"

Back inside the hideout, the pirates that had been assigned the burden of readying the ship's supplies for their journey to the canal had all stopped what they were doing as they listened to Faris bellow out a description of Boko, with Bartz occasionally chiming in. Doors of chambers that they had previously not dared enter when they had been attempting to steal Faris's ship were all swung open, piles of pirates hanging out the entryways and straining themselves to hear Faris's instructions over the slosh of drink already filling their ears. Another group of pirates that were gathered around a fire pit roasting a spit of glistening, dripping, pink and white meat had one member stand up, anxiously jumping up and down to get Faris's attention.

"Yo…aye…Cap'n!"

Galuf caught a glance at the roasting meat and blanched, getting a really sick and what he hoped was really WRONG idea about what that meat was in the back of his mind. Bartz tugged on Faris's coat sleeve and nodded toward the pirate, who was now drunkenly hobbling toward them.

"What is it?" Faris demanded, flicking the feather toward the man. "Have you seen this chocobo?"

"Yessir," the pirate nodded seriously, nodding back toward the firepit. "Me and the fellas here were startin' dinner when Larry came in here all a twitter, sayin' he had found an injured chocobo in the cavern. Poor thing was limping real bad. A bunch of us carried the bird to Doc Elroy's place. He should be laid up there."

"Injured?" Bartz gulped, a million scenarios – all of them very unpleasant – racing through his mind at once.

Galuf unleashed a sigh of relief, his chest deflating to half its size – he hadn't realized he had been holding his breath until just now.

"Who is Doc Elroy?" Bartz asked, thankfully not noticing the panic that had crossed Galuf's features, and Faris handed the feather back to him, gesturing for them to follow. They began to walk deeper in the cavern, toward one of the few chamber doors that had remained closed upon their return.

"Who does he _sound_ like? Every pirate crew needs medical assistance on deck – we get into a lot of scrapes, you know?"

"He's a proper doctor?" Lenna wrinkled her nose. "Did you kidnap him and force him to work for you?"

"NO!" Faris growled, throwing his hands up in the air. "You louts are incorrigible today…keep your traps shut if you don't want me to throw ya overboard."

Without knocking, Faris barged his way into the closed-off chamber, and Bartz nearly squealed like a kid encountering a pile of presents on Christmas morning. A tidy row of beds was shoved along the cavern walls, all lit from above with cheerful, wriggling fires housed in mismatched sconces that looked as if they had been hastily removed from the halls of various manors and remounted with no particular care for décor. In the bed furthest from the threshold was Boko, a mess of molting golden feathers and shredded sheets that the bird had decided to turn into his nest. Next to him was an elderly gentleman in a long white coat, wisps of what remained of his yellow-blonde hair pulled into a nub of a ponytail with a pair of silver spectacles perched over his forehead. He was patiently holding out a handful of curiel greens, turning only to face the intruders once Boko had lowered his neck and taken another hearty beak-full.

"Boko!" Bartz cried, racing to the bed and throwing his arms around the bird, nearly knocking the poor man out of his chair. Boko squeaked and nuzzled his beak against Bartz's hair, gnashed-up greens raining over both of them.

"Kweh..." Boko cawed, gingerly gesturing toward his curled-up legs with one of his wings. Lenna approached quietly, pressing her hand to her mouth as she observed the blood-stained wrappings that ran up the length of his claw.

"Oh! The pirates spoke true – you've been hurt!"

"Ah, you must be his owner," the man chuckled, sliding his knocked-askew glasses back to their proper home on the bridge of his nose. "Some of the crew found him zonked out in the cave, so we brought him back here – his injury looks to be the work of some of the nastier goblins that are holed up in this mountain. But he'll be fine, now that he's in my capable hands."

 _This must be Doc Elroy!_ Bartz thought, giving Boko one last squeeze. _Thank the gods he was here…_

He spun around, his cheeks blooming in red, blotchy patches – in about ten more seconds, he'd be on the verge of tears. "Please, anything you can do to help him, doc... I'll pay whatever price!"

"Now, now, no worries, son," Doc Elroy shook his head. "Leave everything to me! As a friend of Captain Faris, you need ask no favors. I'll keep a good eye on your chocobo while he recovers."

Faris huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. _Friend_ was a bit strong of a word, but…

"Thank you," Bartz sighed, his eyes meeting Faris's as he smiled weakly. "I appreciate it more than you'll ever know."

"Whatever," Faris grunted, turning on his heel before the others could see the blush climbing up his neck. He wasn't used to being thanked for much of anything – and Bartz's vulnerable pleas had ignited a fluttery feeling in his gut that made him want to do a little dance and throw up all at the same time.

"Buddy," Bartz frowned, pulling away from Boko and gently stroking up and down the bird's neck. "I've got to go away for a little while. Something odd happened at the Wind Shrine – and now I need to help Princess Lenna get to Walse. You understand, right?"

"Kweh!" Boko nodded, and Bartz sighed, folding his hands in his lap.

"I need you to stay here and be good for the doctor, OK? I'm…I'm not sure when I'll be back. You have to promise not to follow me, too."

"Kweh…" Boko lowered his head. Lenna turned to Galuf, her eyes watering.

"I get the feeling Boko understands every word Bartz is telling him."

"Me too, kid," Galuf sighed. "Let's give them some privacy to say good-bye, eh?"

"Very well," Faris agreed. "You two can help me make preparations."

"Can we eat something, first?" Galuf protested. "Now that I know that spit wasn't full of chocobo meat…I'm actually kind of hungry." Faris huffed as he blew his bangs out of his eyes, and Lenna couldn't help but avert her gaze and smother a giggle behind her hand.

"…Unbelievable!"

"…I'll be out soon," Bartz choked. Lenna replied with a small wave before turning and gesturing the men outside with her. Doc Elroy rose to his feet, pretending to busy himself with a tray of medications he had left behind on a nightstand a few beds away. Bartz twirled the feather Faris had returned to him between his fingers, remembering a story his mother had once told him as a child about how the most golden and perfect of chocobo feathers were rare relics of good luck that followed their owners for the rest of their natural lives.

 _Mom…I sure could use some good luck now…_

He couldn't put his finger on it, but something uneasy was eating away at him – it was as if his body somehow knew that this interim peace would not keep for long. He reached into his pocket, retrieving the lightless crystal shard and laying it alongside the feather on the bed.

"Wark!" Boko exclaimed, nipping Bartz in the arm. Bartz jumped, peering at the bird as he gingerly rubbed the blossoming welt.

"I know, I know," Bartz sighed. "This is everything I've ever wanted – with Lenna's determination and Faris's vessel, the world will be truly open to me. And finally, I may just find the answer to what my parents were so desperate to hide from me about the crystals." He shook his head, scooping the crystal and the feather into his hands. "Lenna's father…he called us 'Light Warriors'…why do none of us understand what that means?"

"Kweh…kweh…!" Boko ruffled his feathers, his wings flapping impatiently as he headbutted Bartz in the shoulder.

"'So, leave already and find out?'" Bartz laughed a little, gently knocking Boko on his beak with the feather. "You're that anxious to get rid of me? Fine, I get the hint!" He stood up, sticking his treasures back into his pocket and giving Boko one last, long hug. "You're the last family I have left, Boko – so don't do anything reckless while I'm away."

"Warrrrrk!" Boko chirped. Bartz turned back to Doc Elroy, who had given up the pretense of arranging his collection of vials and was watching the two of them with a small smile on his face.

"I'll take care of your friend – I promise. Boko has more reason to be worried about you than you do him."

"Why is that?" Bartz frowned, resting his hand over his hip. "Does have anything to do with Faris? He has suddenly been much nicer to us…well, nicer for him, at any rate. Do you know something I don't?"

"Young man, there is a not a single soul alive on the face of this planet that knows any more about Captain Faris than our esteemed leader wants them to know," Doc Elroy chuckled. "My only advice to you and your little friends is to tread carefully – you're plunging into unknown depths."

* * *

"This is it," Lenna whispered, her fingers anxiously drumming against the ship's railing as she watched Faris make his approach toward them. Her eyes darted over to Bartz, who was half-asleep against the foremast, his hands tucked behind his head. "Do you still have the Torna Canal key?"

" _Yes_ ," Bartz yawned, not bothering to open his eyes. That had been the fiftieth time she had asked him, and sweet as she was, if she made it to fifty-one, he feared he would have no other choice but to lob the damn thing at her head. Lenna's palpable anxiety was only serving to make his nerves ten times worse. Zok's warnings about the canal being filled with monsters hadn't done much to psych him up for their heist, and Faris had all but disappeared after Bartz had emerged from Doc Elroy's chambers – apparently, he had set Galuf and Lenna to work filling up empty bottles from massive kegs of potion (advising them not to ask any questions, which told them all they needed to know about how the potion had been procured in the first place) and then had wandered off without them.

"Where are the other pirates?" Galuf frowned. He had been meandering about the bow, tossing the occasional fish to Syldra whenever she would pop her head up and unleash an ear-splitting, but utterly adorable screech that made the deck boards rattle.

"Oh! They're coming now!" Lenna exclaimed, pointing out ahead. A throng of men had suddenly emerged from the hideout, panting and clamoring to catch up to Faris just as he was climbing the ramp to board the ship.

"Captain! _Wait up_!"

"Huh?" Bartz opened his eyes, sitting up against the mast. The pirates didn't exactly sound…happy. What exactly was going on?

"Sorry, lads," Faris boomed as he reached the deck, making a convoluted show of bowing to Lenna as he brushed past her. "I'm leaving you laggards behind."

 _What!?_ Bartz gasped, leaping to his feet. Without a crew, how exactly were they going to set sail?

"Faris?" Lenna blinked, her eyes following him as he strode toward the bow. "What do you mean?"

"Cap'n! But why!?" one of the pirates wailed, another dramatically sinking to his knees as he raised his fists in the air – the way he was wobbling, Bartz figured he was just the slightest bit sloshed.

"You know we'd follow ye to th' ends of th' earth!"

Faris shook his head, nonchalantly unleashing the furling sails as he made his way past each mast. "I know, and I thank you for it. But not this time."

"Cap'n!"

"This smells of a long journey..." Faris spun on his heel, his eyes hard as steel as he surveyed the whimpering men before him. "While I'm gone, I need you louts to guard the hideout. We can't just let anyone raid our booty!"

"Booty?" Lenna's lip curled in distaste, cutting a confused glance to Bartz as if to ask him if that was what this was really all about. Galuf was observing the drama unfold from the bow, his mouth hanging open as Syldra desperately tried to get his attention, her eyes glued to the snapper dangling precariously from his hands.

 _What the hell is Faris thinking?_ Bartz thought. _To sail so far without any of his men to mind the ship…isn't that practically suicide?_

"But, Cap'n!"

" _Please_ ," Faris commanded, tossing his hair over his shoulder. "Trust me, lads. I'm depending on ye' to keep our home safe. Who knows what villainy will arise in my absence?"

The pirates exchanged confused glances – weren't _they_ the villainy, in this scenario? – but finally seemed to understand whatever it was Faris was saying, bowing their heads and simultaneously lifting their hands in salute.

"Aye-aye, sir!"

"That's the spirit!" Faris grinned, dismissing them with a two-fingered wave as he took his place at the wheel, handily swiping the fish from Galuf's stunned form and tossing it over his shoulder to Syldra without looking. The snapper sailed in the air and landed perfectly in her outstretched mouth, all to a smattering of raucous applause from the pirates.

"Wind at your back, Cap'n. Godspeed!"

"W-wait!" Lenna gasped, her plea falling on deaf ears as the pirates all turned and made their way off the ship in reverse, chattering animatedly as Faris yanked back on the lever that withdrew the ramp and tucked it back into its flattened ridge on the side of the ship. Bartz felt the ship lurch from beneath his feet, and a few moments later Syldra had dove into the depths to help pull it out of the cove, dousing the bow-facing deck with a wave of water that drenched Galuf to his skivvies.

"Are you mad?" Galuf hissed as he wrung out his sleeves, a stream of water hitting the deck. Faris shook his head, smiling slightly as he trailed his fingers over the spokes of the ship's steering wheel.

"For wanting to keep my men safe? I should say not – I know every inch of this ship like I do a lover – I can navigate perfectly fine alone. I've heard many a horror tale about the Torna Canal – what say you?"

"Zok did say monsters were breeding in there ever since the crystal shattered…" Lenna trailed off. "Let us pray that we will find a reprieve from some of that madness…"

Despite the failing winds, the seas were in fine form for sailing, which put Faris in a chipper mood and meant the group was regaled with round after round of whistling and singing. Bartz enjoyed it for what it was – even the vulgar parts that Lenna started preemptively covering her ears for as she shrieked a childhood lullaby to herself. Galuf climbed down from the lookout, folding his hands in the air and cracking his knuckles as he let out a loud yawn.

"Whooo-boy – awful lot of ocean out there. You ever been this far out east, Bartz?"

"No," Bartz smiled as he tried to tune out Faris's warbling and Lenna's howls. "My father used to travel to Walse, however. What about you? All this blue doing anything for that noggin of yours?"

"Nope," Galuf shrugged. "All in good time, I suppose."

"I suppose." Bartz's gaze drifted over the endless swirl of gray blue spread before them, the mountain range that the Torna Canal was nestled inside a scatter of dusky lead on the horizon. "You think we'll ever figure out how to use the powers the Crystal of Wind granted us?"

"I have to believe so," Galuf nodded. "Have we finally found something that shakes the calm and collected Bartz Klauser?"

"Maybe," Bartz huffed. "It's just frustrating – I feel like we should be able to do more. This saving the crystals stuff…it's pretty serious!"

"We're doing what we can," Galuf smiled. "Phew – for a minute there, I thought I was traveling with a bunch of younglings wise beyond their years. But sometimes you remind me that you're just a kid, like now – it's kind of a relief."

"This still doesn't make you any less immature," Bartz pointed out dryly.

A few hours later, the canal gates towered above them, Faris ordering Syldra to slow down as they bobbed over the foam-capped waves lapping at the fortified iron doors. Bartz spied the lock, gesturing for Faris to steer them closer and sticking the key between his front teeth. Climbing the bowsprit, Bartz summoned every last ounce of balance he could muster, shakily jamming the key into the lock and turning until he heard a loud, grinding "click". The doors began to slide open slowly from the force of the waves below, and Galuf let out a whoop.

"Nice work, kiddo!"

 _I thought that was a rather dashing move that would have upgraded me from 'kiddo' to perhaps something a little manlier_ , Bartz mused. _Better luck next time, I guess._

He hopped back down to the bow, where Lenna met up with him, her hands grasped together and eyes aglow with silent thanks. Faris – or rather Syldra – pulled them forward, the roar of the open ocean fading into eerie silence as they plunged into the heart of the mountainous valley of water.

"You're my eyes, Lenna!" Faris bellowed from the wheel. "Let me know if you see anything strange!"

"Why can't I be his eyes?" Bartz pouted, and Lenna laughed, patting his arm.

"It might be a good thing that you have not fallen into a pirate's circle of trusted advisors. When this is all said and done, I do technically still have my reputation as Princess of Tycoon to consider."

"That's…comforting," Bartz frowned. "I guess."

Lenna laughed again, pushing her hair out of her eyes as a gale of wind ripped through the valley. The melodious tone suddenly died in her throat, the blood draining from her face as she leaned in closer over the rail.

"Uh…umm…FARIS!"

"Lenna, what's wrong?" Bartz gasped, and she raised her hand, pointing toward a drooping, half-petrified, crooked pine tree that was emerging out of the mountainside. Gurgling beneath the shadow of the tree was a churning pool of black, and materializing from within was a scaly pair of blood red, three-pronged pincers that looked as if they could cut through the ship like scissors through a ribbon. Bartz leaned in closer, suppressing the urge to scream as a cold sweat broke out on the back of his neck. "Hey...w-what's that?"

"Oh no..." Lenna gulped. "The monsters Zok told us about…" Bartz whirled around, calling out to Faris.

"We need to reverse! There's a whirlpool ahead and monsters are, um… _CRAWLING OUT OF IT_!"

Faris blanched as he struggled against the wheel, shaking his head in disbelief. "Thundering typhoons! The rudder's not responding!"

Galuf laughed nervously, grabbing hold of the wheel for himself even as Faris shot him the dirtiest look imaginable. After giving a few worthless turns that only served to make his arms ache, Galuf backed off, raising his hands in the air. "You'd better figure something out fast, _Captain_ , 'cause we're getting sucked in…!"

"Ayeeeeeeee!" Syldra screamed, a wave of cold water pouring over Bartz and Lenna as the dragon floundered helplessly against the pull of the whirlpool. There came a sickening crack, and the hull of the ship smashed into the tree, the bowsprit Bartz had climbed upon just moments before splintering into hundreds of pieces of wood that flew into the air and clattered upon the deck.

"Syldra, what's wrong!?" Faris cried.

Bartz pulled Lenna behind him as she staggered from a coughing fit, spitting out a mouthful of water. A snaking shadow erupted from the churning canal, sending Syldra reeling as one pincher smashed into the deck to Bartz's left, and then another to his right.

"Look alive, something's coming!"

"Galuf, here!" Faris growled, tossing a small key that the old man caught in one hand. "The weapons are in my chamber, beneath the desk – and may I remind you we have little time, so don't go poking around in any of my business!"

" _That's_ what you're worried about?" Galuf grunted, but he bolted below deck so quickly that all Bartz could make out was a gray blur. Faris leapt down from the forecastle, dashing in front of Bartz and Lenna just as the rest of the monster hurled its way onto the bow – a slender, segmented scorpion with six more writhing legs that were dangling in the air as a dual-fanged tail curled threateningly above their heads, dripping with a deep violet venom.

"Yeesh!" Bartz made a face. "It looks like an overgrown lobster! Is that…a Karlabos?"

"A Karlabos?" Lenna blinked. "What is that?"

"Nothing _good_. I've heard stories from my dad – in old legends, it was a demon that stalked mermaids. And, eh… _ate_ them."

"Irk!" Lenna whimpered, clasping her hand to her mouth. At that moment, she couldn't help but notice just how mermaid-like Faris's flowing, sea-sprayed hair looked as he reached for his hip to withdraw his sword. "Faris, be careful!"

Faris gritted his teeth in reply and swung his blade, colliding with the monster's gnashing fangs as Bartz and Lenna took the chance to run for it. They nearly crashed into Galuf emerging from the hull, his arms loaded down with their long-missing swords and Lenna's dagger.

"Thank the gods!" Bartz sighed, grabbing his weapon. "Nice work, Galuf."

They charged after Faris, throwing themselves at the monster as the ship violently rolled back and forth beneath their feet. But despite their ambush, the beast held strong, digging its pincers deeper into the shattered deck as it lunged forward with its talon-like legs, six rogue swords tearing through the air that kept Bartz and Galuf weaving back and forth like they were dashing over hot coals. Just as Lenna managed to gouge out one of its leering, citrine eyes, the monster heaved itself into a spiraling tower, the tip of its tail aimed directly for Faris's chest. Lenna's scream froze in her throat, the ship screeching as Syldra suddenly threw herself over the deck, snatching the Karlabos's tail in her maw and clamping down with a nauseating 'crunch'. As the monster's legs twitched maddeningly, venom and blood gushing out of Syldra's mouth, the dragon yanked her head back, ripping Karlabos away from its hold on the ship and tumbling backward into the whirlpool. The two of them sank beneath the turbulent waves in an explosion of bubbles and foam, broken chunks of the ship falling after them.

Faris shrieked and rushed to the demolished bow, slashing away at the collapsed taffrail with his sword while kicking the wreckage into the raging waters. "Syldra!"

Bartz shook his head slowly, his voice quivering as he lowered his sword. It had all happened so fast that his mind was still reeling. "...I'm sure she's okay. She…she has to be. She's a fighter…"

But the seconds ticked by painfully, with no sign of either Syldra or Karlabos surfacing from the murk. Faris began to unlace his boots, his eyes wide with panic as he kicked the first one off. "Syldra!"

"Whoa!" Galuf gasped, he and Bartz diving forward at once to grab Faris's arms as he rose from the deck, preparing to leap.

"Think about what you're doing!" Bartz hissed. "This isn't going to help anything!"

"Lemme go!" Faris barked, struggling against them as he threw his head back. "I said, _get off_! _Syldra!_ "

Suddenly, the ship lurched forward out of the whirlpool, nearly sending the three of them careening into the canal. Lenna watched in dismay as Syldra's empty mythril harness slowly floated to the water's surface. She staggered over to the three of them, choking on her sobs, and yanked on Bartz and Galuf's arms, pulling them away from the shattered ledge of the ship. Faris came dragging along limply under their ironclad grip, his clenched jaw trapping the screams in his throat.

"C-come on," Lenna rasped, pressing her forehead to Bartz's back in an attempt to stifle her tears. "We need to f-figure out what we're going to do next…"

* * *

By nightfall, the four of them had lost any semblance of progress – the mountainous crags that surrounded what was left of their ship had started looking the same a mere hour after breaking free from the whirlpool, and Bartz had gone cross-eyed from staring at the infinite stream of muddy-green water. Without the wind and Syldra to help guide them along, they had done nothing but meander aimlessly. Bartz, Galuf and Lenna had racked their brains trying to figure out how to make the crystal shards do something – anything – to help them get back to the open sea – but praying (Lenna), stern lecturing (Galuf) and staring bewilderedly (Bartz) had yielded no results. At this rate, there was no way they were going to make it to Walse by the end of the day, let alone by morning.

Faris, meanwhile, hadn't shown his face since Bartz and Galuf had tossed him into the hold, convinced that it was the only way they could ensure he wouldn't throw himself overboard. When the first streaks of violet stained the horizon, Galuf heaved a sigh, abandoning the worthless steering wheel that he had been holding court over in Faris's place and reaching to the sky with a stretch and an accompanying yawn.

"I'm going to go check on him…I haven't heard him curse our names in a while now. Maybe he wore himself out."

"Oh dear," Lenna frowned from the lower deck. She had been keeping herself occupied by attempting to build a fire in the welded fire pit and cobble together a dinner with the fish Bartz had caught for them in between fending off transparent, pink-tentacled Suckers that had a penchant for launching themselves upon their now-vulnerable prow. She wedged the four spits she had speared with fish over the fire and stood up, nonchalantly brushing the fish guts off of her skirt. "I'll go with you."

Bartz knew that Lenna's delicate way of implying that she didn't trust that Galuf's corny jokes wouldn't cause Faris to force himself through a porthole in an effort to escape.

"I'll keep watch out here," Bartz offered, slumping down against a mast and sheathing his sword. The monsters had been slowing down, and he could only pray that meant they were tucking themselves in for the evening like good little murderous octopi.

 _Poor Faris…and Syldra… Why couldn't I have done more…?_

He closed his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. He could feel the gentle pulse of the crystal shard resonate against his heart, and felt a strange swell of sadness rise in his throat.

 _And now we're stuck out here with a damaged ship, no wind, and no way back home or to Walse._

About ten minutes later, Galuf had returned, snatching two of the fish from the fire before plunking down next to Bartz and handing one over.

"How's Faris?" Bartz asked, eyeing the jagged slit in his fish Lenna had carved with her dagger. He wasn't one to complain about free food, but he seriously hoped the poor thing was already dead before she had executed her massacre.

Galuf shrugged, taking a huge bite – he had no qualms about the state of his dinner. "As well as can be expected. We should leave him be for the night."

Bartz lowered his spit, sighing. "The ship is just drifting with the current...I know there isn't much he can do, but I'd feel a little better if our captain was at least, you know…captaining."

Galuf choked out a half-laugh. "I agree – Lenna is trying to work on him – at least he didn't throw a glass of ale at her head like he did to me. I consider that progress." He took the last bite of his fish, tossing the spit backward into the canal without turning around. "Wonder where we'll end up?"

Meanwhile, below deck, Princess Lenna Charlotte Tycoon found herself in the very odd position of sitting on the edge of a pirate captain's bed, brushing his hair out with a pearl-wrapped comb – all at his request. Faris was hunched over with his hands on his knees, staring forlornly at a shattered glass a few feet away and the spill of golden liquid seeping down the hastily slammed door.

"That was my last splash of ale, Lenna…why is Galuf so _annoying_?"

"Faris..." Lenna murmured, gingerly working through a snarl as she shook her head. "Syldra is… Surely Syldra is still out there, alive, somewhere..."

Faris closed his eyes, and Lenna could feel the muscles in his back seizing beneath her hands.

"She saved our lives…and I couldn't do _anything_ for her!"

"Please, stop," Lenna chided, setting the comb down on the bed and pulling the hair that had fallen away to tie it back up with the ribbon she had wrapped around her wrist. "Syldra didn't help us just so that you could throw your life away. If you had gone into that whirlpool, you would have never come back out."

"She's my sister…" Faris howled, burying his face in his hands. "The one consistently good force in the entirety of my life. For us to part like this…? Now? It's…"

"…Unacceptable," Lenna finished softly, tightening the ribbon and slowly trailing her fingers down the length of Faris's now-silky ponytail. She didn't know what compelled her to take such an intimate action, but something about the sight of her ivory digits wrapped in tendrils of violet felt oddly reassuring.

Faris turned to Lenna, the shadow-drenched circles under his eyes enough to send a shiver down her spine. The agony reflected in his gaze was the same chaos that had been churning in her heart ever since her father had disappeared from the Wind Shrine.

And she realized at that moment that she would never be able to say the "right" thing to Faris – it simply didn't exist.

* * *

The next morning, Bartz awoke to a chorus of howls that jarred him out of a dreamless, but unsettling sleep. He bolted upright, shocked to find himself surrounded in a shroud of milky gray that left him barely able to see two feet in front of him. A thin sheen of dew shone on his skin, and as he blinked, he could see flecks of mist glinting on the tips of his eyelashes.

"Where…are we?"

"The graveyard of the sea..."

Bartz turned around, shocked to hear someone actually answer him. A sloping shadow rose before him, and for a moment, Bartz thought a graveyard resident had decided to play stowaway. But when the tail of a lavish coat nearly smacked him in the face, he realized that Faris had finally managed to crawl out of his room. Disturbingly, he and Lenna had stayed cooped up for as long as Bartz had managed to keep his eyes open, but Galuf had assured him several times before passing out that all he had been able to make out through the door were intermittent growls and Lenna's soothing lilt. That sounded bad enough to Bartz, but Galuf seemed convinced that nothing untoward had happened in the night. Bartz let a yawn slip out, rubbing the crust out of his eyes.

"That's a real thing? I've heard the stories, but…"

"Apparently so," Lenna piped up, peeking out from behind Faris. Half of her hair was smashed haphazardly against her head – it didn't look as if she had gotten much sleep herself. "A gathering place for ruined and scuttled ships...and a nest for the undead. My father's men have told me stories of their own – nasty ones."

"Brrrrr," Galuf muttered. He was gazing out the side of the ship, rubbing his arms. "All the more reason to hotfoot it out of here!"

"No one is hotfooting anywhere," Faris drawled. "The ship hasn't moved in hours. We're stuck."

"W-what!?" Bartz gulped, rushing to the ship's ledge. If the sun was out that morning, it certainly wasn't anywhere to be seen – the sky was stained the color of bruised plums, low-hanging clouds blanketing the horizon. Through the veil of fog, he could make out a mess of rotting masts, torn flags, and gutted hulls as far as the eye could see – the spread of destruction before them made their busted vessel look like a luxury cruise liner. "Why didn't you wake us up!?"

"Because you look so cute when you're sleeping," Faris smirked, trailing the tip of his finger along Bartz's quivering jaw with a glint in his eyes that made Bartz's stomach do backflips. "You would have woken up on your own if a zombie started chewing on your foot."

"That's not funny!" Bartz protested, laughing a little too loudly to cover up the way his voice suddenly squeaked when Faris pulled his hand away. "I'm in the prime of my life! I'm going to be the first one the zombies go after!"

"I thought zombies were attracted to brains?" Galuf winked. "In that case, you'll be just fine."

"Um…you guys…" Lenna pointed over the bow of the ship, blinking. "Either we've just crashed a big party, or there's a whole bunch of monsters on the ship next door that want to meet us."

"The ship next door…?" Bartz's mouth went dry as he followed Lenna's shaking hand. A dilapidated galleon was wobbling back and forth in the wind-churned channel, teeming with an army of animated skeletons that were clamoring at the ship's ledge with a collection of raised, chipped scimitars and what he could only hope were empty flintlocks. Some of them were dressed in mangy rags that might have once been silken shirts and breeches, and others had oil-stained bandanas wrapped around their shiny white heads.

"I don't like the look of that," said Faris. "If I didn't know any better, I would say Siren's got her goons after us."

"Siren?" Galuf asked, his voice cracking. "Who's that? And why does she need goons?"

The skeletons were starting to scuttle down from their ship, a cascading waterfall of ivory pallor pouring into the canal as the unsettling chorus of bone clicking against wood rose into the air – they were jamming their digits into knotholes for leverage, leering, empty sockets trained on the so-called warriors of light the entirety of the monsters' descent.

"I'll tell ya later, if we survive this," Faris offered. "But for now, we need less chatting, and more running. Time to abandon ship." He took off running toward the stern, leaping up the stairs to the quarter deck two at a time. Bartz, Galuf and Lenna turned to each other, eyes wide, and Faris paused mid-way, glaring at them incredulously.

"Have you all taffy for brains? We need to go NOW!"

 _Out of the frying pan and into the fire,_ Bartz sighed. _Guess we've just got to trust him…_

The three of them followed Faris, the first wave of skeletons crashing aboard in a clamor of bone and splintering wood that made the entire vessel shudder beneath their feet. Bartz nearly smashed into Faris's backside as he suddenly came to a halt, Galuf and Lenna screeching to a stop just inches from tumbling overboard in their haste to put as much distance between them and the monsters as possible.

"Now what?" Lenna whimpered. They had officially run out of ship – and the nearest wreckage they could spot in the thickening fog was too far for any of them to jump, or even swim – the undead would be on them in no time.

"Let me think for a minute," Faris mumbled, his eyes drifting over the limp topsail hanging mutely above them. "Aha, got it. Keep 'em busy for me, would you?" In one swift motion, he swiped Lenna's dagger from her belt, trading it for a hasty kiss on her cheek before somersaulting himself over the main boom and scrambling atop of it at the sail's fringe.

"H-Hey!" Bartz protested as the blood drained from Lenna's face, but Faris had already crouched down with his back to them, hacking away at something they could no longer see. Galuf withdrew his sword, crying out in an effort to drown out the horrible screeches coming from the skeletons as he dove into the fray, a spray of limbs flying into the air as he slashed his way through the horde.

"Bartz, you have to go after him!" Lenna gasped. "That lunatic is going to get himself killed!"

"But what about you? You haven't got a weapon!"

"I'll be fine…just go! Please!" Lenna shoved him forward, blinking away her tears. " _Galuf!_ "

Bartz reared back on his heel and kicked a skeleton in the face as he bolted down the stairs, the dislodged head soaring past its brethren and plunking into the ocean with a satisfying splash as the rest of the monster collapsed into a deteriorating pile of dust kicked away by his frantic rush of footsteps. After making quick work of the welcoming committee waiting for him on the deck, he joined Galuf, who had just gotten done taking out five more skeletons of his own. With a silent nod of appreciation, Galuf pressed in deeper, and Bartz drew up the rear as his cover, trying to keep an eye on Lenna between dispatching enemies.

Meanwhile, Faris was sawing apart the last fibers of rope that hung between the main mast and the boom. With a devious laugh, he made the final cut, the rope snapping loose in his hands. He called down to the others, shoving Lenna's dagger in his coat for safekeeping.

"Aye! Follow me!"

Bartz and Galuf paused long enough to catch Faris hauling himself half-way up the rope, the pirate letting out a wild "whoop" as he swung his legs and propelled himself across the canal, taking a flying leap into the wreckage across the way.

"What…the…hell…?" Bartz gulped.

"Come on, kid!" Galuf grinned, grabbing Bartz by the wrist and dragging him back to the quarter deck. Lenna had rushed to the ledge, screaming to Faris what a fool he was as Faris merely laughed and waved from the other ship – it was obvious he couldn't hear a bloody word she was saying. Galuf took his turn at the rope swing next, hoisting himself onto the boom and winking down at Lenna and Bartz.

"Well, see you two on the other side!"

"Be careful!" Lenna shrieked, but Galuf was gone in a flash, throwing himself with abandon to the pulsating velveteen sky. A few moments later, there came a distant crash, and Faris was hauling Galuf to his feet, offering Bartz and Lenna a thumb's-up to indicate everyone was alive and well. The rope swung back to them, and Lenna shook her head, her face pale.

"How did he not break every bone in his body?"

"You'll have to ask him yourself," Bartz grunted, beheading another pair of skeletons that had managed to wriggle their way up to their deck. "We've gotta go – _now_." He sheathed his sword, kneeling before the boom – with her diminutive height, there was no way Lenna was going to be able to scale her way up on her own. "Get on my shoulders!"

Lenna reluctantly pulled herself away from the ship's ledge, climbing onto Bartz's back and reaching for the boom as he slowly lifted himself to full height, trying very hard to ignore how soft Lenna's thighs felt on the tips of his ears as he staggered forward beneath her weight. Once she had grabbed hold, she flung herself over, Bartz purposely averting his gaze so that he didn't catch a glance beneath her fluttering dress. He wasn't sure if the nausea that had overtaken his stomach was due to the idea of becoming a human projectile within the next few moments, or from thoughts perhaps less wholesome about the princess standing over him, but either way, he wasn't in any condition to fly.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked between clenched teeth, his cheeks aflame. Maybe by the time Lenna made her way across, he wouldn't feel like throwing up all over the deck.

"I'm not leaving without you!" Lenna protested, backing away toward the mast to make room for him. "We'll go together, OK?"

More seizing butterflies infiltrated Bartz's stomach. _Damn…_ Bartz fastened on his most earnest smile and jumped toward the boom, grasping hold and closing his eyes as his muscles twitched with the effort of lifting himself up. He felt a sudden tug on his right ankle and heard Lenna scream, his eyes snapping open as a collection of razor-sharp digits tore through his boot. He glanced over his shoulder and saw another horde of skeletons making their way to the quarter deck, a particularly ambitious chap breaking away from the group in a last-ditch effort to convince Bartz he belonged with them.

"Ugh…" he grunted, feeling his hands start to slip as the skeleton tugged harder. _If I don't get rid of these guys fast, they'll climb up here and attack Lenna!_ "Lenna…run…!"

But rather than turning to grab the rope, she instead thrust her palm forward, her eyes wide as a scintillating luminance enveloped her body, transforming her alabaster complexion into a sea of pearl.

" _Cure!_ "

A flurry of emerald starlight washed over the skeleton clinging to Bartz, a rabid shriek dying in the monster's throat as Bartz felt the pinch of its grip loosen and fall away, the sound of ash puttering on the deck's surface. Her eyes flashing, Lenna cast the spell again, this time directing it at the skeletons at the top of the stairs. Another chorus of shrieks exploded into the air, and before Bartz could comprehend what was happening, he was being hauled up by Lenna, her fingernails digging into his sleeves.

"Come on!" she gasped, biting her lip. "Almost…there…!"

He finally managed to climb back up, swinging his leg over the boom as he grabbed hold of the rope to keep himself from flopping back onto the deck in a pile of gooey muscles. He looked up at Lenna shyly, watching as the divine glow slowly absorbed into her skin and disappeared. It hadn't occurred to him that she could get any prettier, but that sudden lightshow had certainly done the trick.

"That was brilliant thinking – using white magic against the undead!"

"Ah, well…" Lenna blushed, quickly shaking her head. "It was just something I remembered hearing from my father's stories – I certainly didn't expect it to actually work. But I'm afraid that's about the extent of the magic I know, so…"

"Say no more," Bartz nodded, pulling himself up as he swung the rope between his legs. After that close call, playing Tarzan suddenly didn't seem to be that big of a deal. "Hold on tight, OK?"

"I wouldn't let go for anything," Lenna smiled slightly, and Bartz felt his stomach do a somersault as he felt the warmth of her entire body pressing against him from behind, her arms snaking around his torso and clasping tight just below his navel.

 _Oh, cheese and crackers,_ Bartz thought to himself, the blush rushing back into his face. _Thank the gods Faris and Galuf can't see me right now…_

On the count of three, Bartz pushed them off of the boom, their legs swinging out in tandem as the canal swirled beneath them in a dizzying rush of black and blue. Tempted as he was to close his eyes, Bartz instead focused on Faris's mop of hair from atop the wreckage, realizing they now had to actually stick a landing – and soon, lest they wanted to swing backward and meet up with the skeletons again for round two.

"Ready?" Lenna called in his ear, and he nodded, slightly shifting his body so that they were coming in from their sides.

"One…two…!"

Lenna leapt first, screaming as she tumbled forward and fell neatly into Faris's outstretched arms, a mile-wide grin on his face as he winked up at Bartz. His stomach somersaulting again, Bartz lost his concentration, letting go a fraction of a second too late and crashing into the ledge of the new ship, stars exploding in his vision as he slid down the shattered rail.

"Ugh…!"

"Up you go, now!" Galuf chuckled, grabbing hold of Bartz's arm and slinging him over the side like a sack of flour. Once he felt the sweet, sweet sensation of solid ground (well, ship) underneath his back, Bartz finally allowed himself to close his eyes, unleashing a deep breath he had been holding in for the duration of his flight.

"Perfect," Faris declared. "They'll have a hard time catching up to us now."

He spoke truly – their overtaken vessel was now filled with confused skeletons staring about dimly, staring at the dangling rope and the piles of ash that had once been their comrades. Some had circled back around to the entrance to the captain's quarters and broken in to search for their quarry there. Galuf stepped carefully to what remained of the front of the ship, which was sunken underwater with only the algae-coated bowsprit breaking above the canal's surface. Beyond, he could make out the remains of countless other vessels, all in various states of decay. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of pity for Faris – it seemed only a matter of a few moonlight-stained nights before his ship would be as unrecognizable as the rest.

Lenna joined him, sucking in a deep breath as she wrapped her arms around herself. It seemed that if they could cross from ship to ship, they could possibly make an escape from the graveyard – but where was it that they would end up? The Torna Canal simply emptied into the Walsian Sea – without a ship or miraculously sprouting wings, there would be no way they could actually make their way to land before starving to death or being hunted by the undead first. And in their rush to flee, they hadn't taken any of their supplies with them.

Judging by the sudden hush that had fallen over the four of them, Bartz figured he may as well be the one to ask the one question he was sure was on everyone's mind.

"So…now what?"

But Faris, of course, already had a plan formulating in his mind. He grabbed Bartz's hand, yanking him to his feet before he could protest and giving him a hearty smack on the back that nearly knocked the poor freelancer's eyeballs out of his skull.

"I'm going to take a look around – maybe Syldra washed up here with us. She's going to be our only hope for pulling one of these pieces of junk back out to sea if we want to get out of here."

"Faris…" Bartz lowered his gaze. _He's still holding out hope that Syldra is…_

"Good idea," Lenna chimed in, much to Bartz's and Galuf's surprise. She jutted her thumb backward toward the bowsprit. "We can use this to cross to the next ship. All the wreckage has been merged together by the current – it's the only way we're going to be able to cross from here."

"But Faris, what about that Siren lady you mentioned earlier?" Galuf asked. "If we find her, would she be able to help us out?"

"Siren? Bah-ha-ha!" Faris tittered, shaking his head. "She'll do no such thing. If those monsters were hers, as I suspect, all she'll be good for is a one-way ticket to the briny depths, if ya catch my drift."

"Who is she?" Lenna tilted her head. "Enlighten us, if you think Galuf's question was so funny…"

Her icy tone seemed to strike a nerve with the pirate – he straightened his spine, clearing his throat in the midst of another fit of laughter. "Siren is a _legend_ among all sea-faring folk. They say that she lures sailors to her nest so that she can steal their souls. Afterward, their bodies do not die – without a soul, they become undead and wander around aimlessly for eternity – until someone like us puts 'em out of their misery."

"But no one has ever seen her," Bartz raised an eyebrow. "Right?"

"Like I said, she's the stuff of legends," Faris shrugged. "It may sound silly to you landlubbers, but to my crew, she's as real as a shattered, talking crystal."

"Point taken," Lenna sighed, unconsciously running her fingers over the crystal shard tucked in her pocket.

"How does she lure the sailors?" Galuf pressed his fingers together, half-grinning. "Is she a beauty? Does she have a voice like honey? Or maybe curves for days?"

"Twit," Faris spat. "If anyone knew how she did it, no one would be gettin' trapped, now would they? Anyone else got any more stupid questions?"

"No," Bartz, Lenna and Galuf bemoaned in unison, and Faris nodded, a slow smirk blossoming over his lips.

"That's what I thought." He reached down, retrieving Lenna's dagger and shoving it back in her hands before tromping over to the bowsprit and climbing on without a second thought. The soaked-through wood groaned under his weight, but Faris traipsed across without hesitation, one foot elegantly stepping in front of the other until he was able to leap across to the next ship. He turned to face them, crossing his arms over his chest. "So, are you gonna help me find Syldra, or are you going to wait for those jackalopes across the way to figure out where we went?"

"I think he enjoys us reiterating how right he is when he asks questions like that," Galuf muttered. "Are we sure the Crystal of Wind wanted _all_ of us to become light warriors?"

"Please don't joke," Lenna sighed, turning the dagger over in her fingers before reluctantly sheathing it on her hip. "No matter what…we have to stick together. It's the only hope we have for getting out of this mess."

"Sorry, kiddo," Galuf frowned, giving her hand a quick squeeze.

Bartz took a step forward, sucking in his breath as he stretched out his hands for balance and climbed atop the sagging wooden pole. He could feel Faris's eyes burning into him, but he refused to look up, fearful that he would lose his concentration and plummet into the swill below. He could feel the tip of Boko's feather brushing over the curve of his waist from where it was sticking out of his pocket, and the crystal shard, brimming with silent light unbeknownst to him, pulsing with each harried beat of his heart.

 _Every second we're stuck here, the Crystal of Water slips further out of our grasp…_

 _The evil presence King Tycoon referenced…does it know the crystals have called upon their champions? Is it trying to stop us even now?_

* * *

A booming curse reverberated throughout the downed ship's corridors, and a few moments later, Faris came stomping back to the others, his eyes narrowed. Lenna was resting on a soaked-through burlap sack of what she hoped was some sort of spoiled flour, and Galuf was preoccupied with trying to light what had seemed to be a reasonably dry torch he had found jammed in one of the cabins they had explored. They had all lost track of the passing time, and despite having made their way through at least a dozen ships thus far, the novelty of each new one was quickly worn away to naught – water-logged, molding holds and ransacked stores all looked the same no matter what manner of vessel they appeared on. Some of the ships had been so blighted that they could only use what remained above water as a stepping stone to a new path, and others, like the one they were in now, forced them to cut through the hull to reach the opposite side because the main deck had been rendered impassable.

"Come back!" Bartz called from down the hall, and Lenna lifted her head from the cradle of her hands, peering up at an obviously-agitated Faris.

"Is there a problem?"

"Aye, there's a problem!" Faris huffed. "The only way through is utterly flooded."

"Oh," Lenna blinked. Maybe she was just over exhausted, but the level of rage Faris was reserving for this impasse seemed more than what was called for.

"It's flooded, but it's doable!" Bartz suddenly appeared, his breeches soaked through along with most of his tunic. "It doesn't seem to go on for long – I think we can make it."

"That's a relief," Lenna smiled, taking that the her cue that her short rest was over. Galuf's torch burst into flames, and he pumped his fist in the air, tucking the flint he had on a cord around his neck back inside his shirt.

"And now we've got light!"

"No!" Faris glowered, causing both Galuf and Lenna to jump in place. "Do we have to go this way? We'll get soaked..." He nodded toward Bartz, who shrunk back, taking a quick gander at himself to make sure nothing too vulgar had appeared with his suddenly very clingy clothing. But when he could spot nothing wrong, he shook his head, gesturing back toward the hall.

"What, are you going to melt or something? Come on!"

"Yeah, what's the big deal?" Galuf snorted.

"N-Nothing!" Faris huffed, though Bartz could swear he heard just the slightest note of hesitation in his voice. "This is just a good coat…"

"The kingdom of Tycoon will reward your brave deeds with another coat of your choosing," Lenna smiled. "You have my word – I'll have the finest tailor in our realm at your command for the commission."

Faris rolled his eyes, turning away as he roughly shoved past Bartz. "I'm gonna need a lot more than that, Princess – I've been keeping a running tab since the moment you tried to abscond with my ship."

By the time they had caught up Faris, he was already submerged in the water, his hair knotted up at the top of his head to keep it dry and a sour frown etched in his features. Bartz plunged in after, with Lenna sinking in behind him, the water nearly reaching her chest. Galuf took up the rear, holding the precious torch high in the air. They continued through the flooded corridor, mercifully not encountering anything suspicious in the water that would have given Faris even more reason to bite their heads off. After fifteen minutes of wading, they came to a surprisingly well-preserved staircase, a golden emblem of a steering wheel on the closed door above them causing Faris's eyes to light up.

"Aye, the captain's quarter! I thought this layout seemed familiar – it must be another Pollendina, just like my lass! Gold accents like these are a surefire giveaway."

"A Pollendina?" Everything that had come out of Faris's mouth was like a foreign language to Bartz – and he could only assume "lass" referred to Faris's now-busted ship. Faris climbed out of the water ahead of them, his soaked coat trailing behind him like a sack full of bricks.

"A famous shipwright from long before any of our mothers were even a gleam in their mothers' eyes," Faris replied, trying the latch a few times before pulling a pin from his hair and jamming it into the lock. "Rumor is that he has apprentices the world over that carry on the craft in his place – he's long-gone, but there are still quite a few vessels that aren't accounted for from what he had originally produced that are rumored to be back in their hands. I hear if you're in the market for a new ship, one of the apprentices will only approach you if you're deemed worthy."

"Wow," Lenna gasped. "It all sounds so impressive – your ship must have been with your – err – _company_ – for a very long time, then." She wasn't sure what one called a collective of pirates, so she tried to go for politeness rather than accuracy.

"It was," Faris sighed, the use of past-tense to describe his ship tasting strange on his tongue as the lock suddenly clicked open. It was beyond a travesty that such a majestic piece of naval engineering was going to eventually sink to the bottom of this accursed place, lost to the annals of time forevermore. His sour mood settling in once more, Faris kicked the door open and marched inside. Bartz came in after, nearly jumping for joy when he saw the spread before them – two tidy rows of bunks were anchored across from each other on opposite walls, an iron-walled firepit positioned between them and a hand-carved rosewood desk shoved against the wall. In the adjoining suite divided by a canvas curtain that was yellowed with age but otherwise still functioning, there was another, stand-alone bed – presumably for the captain – a wardrobe, and another doorway, barred with stacks of crates that had a good inch-thick layer of dust accumulating upon them.

"This room seems safe enough..." Lenna said cautiously, looking around one last time to ensure nothing was going to jump out at them and eat their souls – or any other parts, for that matter. "Let's take a rest."

"This is great!" Galuf exclaimed, closing the door behind them and making a beeline for the firepit, tipping the torch inside. The walls of the chamber erupted in a rosy glow, and Faris sighed, dragging himself upon the desk with great effort thanks to his layers of dripping-wet clothes and reaching for a slide vent none of them would have otherwise noticed. The mechanism sprung open, revealing a patch of dreary fog that had still been hanging over the deck when they had made their descent hours earlier.

"So you don't suffocate us all to death."

"Good call," Galuf winked, and Faris plunked himself on top of the desk, surveying the lot of them with the same disposition of a war-weary king with only fools left in his court.

"I'm soaked –" Bartz began. But Faris turned his gaze directly upon him, arching one brow as he drummed his fingers against the desk, and Bartz suddenly bit his tongue, not wanting to give Faris any satisfaction of hearing someone else complain about the water.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Faris cooed.

"Um…" Bartz pulled at the waistband of his breeches, laughing far too loudly to sound anything but fake. "I mean, yow! There's a fish in my shorts!"

"And on that note…" Lenna shook her head, pushing past the curtain that divided the two rooms. "I'm going to see if there is something in this wardrobe I can wear while my dress dries... No peeking!"

"You have our word!" Bartz exclaimed, waving her off as she tugged the curtain shut and disappeared. He shrugged off his tunic and unbuttoned his shirt, laying them out by the fire before parking himself in front of one of the bunks so he had something to lean on. Galuf did the same for his gilet and boots, leaving his bodysuit on to preserve his modesty as he sat across from Bartz. They both looked expectantly at Faris, who hadn't moved an inch since taking his place on the desk. He was staring straight ahead at the fire, a dull glaze overtaking his eyes.

"Okay," Bartz laughed nervously, wondering if Faris was plotting something pirate-y while Lenna was distracted with playing dress-up. "…Time to get dry!" Faris rested his chin on his palm, shivering slightly.

"I'm fine like this...don't worry about me."

"Are you crazy, boy?" Galuf exclaimed. "You'll catch pneumonia in those wet things!"

"Or get hypothermia," Bartz frowned, the realization hitting him before the words had left his mouth that it may have already been too late. Memories flooded back to him from when he had been playing outside as a child back home one lazy winter afternoon – one of his neighbors had fallen through the ice in the village pond, and tried as he might, Bartz couldn't summon enough strength to pull him out of the water. Luckily, Dorgann had heard his screams and had coming racing home from where he had been hunting in the northern woodland, and the child had been saved. But as soon as he had been pulled to land, his eyes had glazed over and he had become disoriented, weakly fighting Dorgann and not even recognizing Bartz as he was laid out in bed. As Dorgann went to work with healing spells, Stella had been frantically digging through chests for their warmest blankets and setting several kettles of water to boil on the stove as she explained to Bartz what was happening to the child wilting away before them – he had been terrified at the idea of such a condition since.

"At least take off your coat," Galuf insisted, rising from the fire to help lift it from Faris's shoulders. He shoved his hands beneath the collar, his forehead wrinkling in concern. "Yeesh, you ARE cold…Gotta get your body temperature up, pronto."

"Hey, what're you doing?" Faris grunted, batting Galuf's hands away with only half the effort one would expect by the rage simmering in his tone.

"Come on," Bartz frowned, getting up to join them. "Get that thing off and sit by the fire. We'll ask Lenna to cast a Cure spell when she gets back." He reached for Faris's chest, unfastening the remainder of the slippery silver-plated buttons as quickly as he could manage – they felt like ice cubes against his pruney fingers. Faris howled in protest and tried to shove his fist in Bartz's face, but Galuf caught hold of him just before Bartz got a mouthful of broken teeth.

"Get away! _I said_ don't touch…!"

He arched his back violently as Bartz's hands swept over the last of the buttons, swinging his foot into Galuf's thigh and sending him reeling backwards into the bunks. Bartz's hands slipped as he shoved the coat back, his palms landing squarely on twin rises of soft, pliable flesh beneath Faris's soaked shirt. Bartz felt his breath catch in his throat as Faris's pupils shrunk to pinpricks, their eyes meeting in mutual horror as Bartz's fingers involuntarily curled in shock, clenching the silken, supple skin for a few agonizing seconds before his body caught up to his brain and he staggered back, a scream rising in his throat.

 _Oh, my gods. Oh, my gods! Those are b-breasts…!_

 _Faris is…he's a…_

Galuf was frozen, half-collapsed against the bunk, his eyes bugging out of his head as Faris turned to glare at him, the water-logged shirt leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination as the coat slid down to the floor with a pathetic "thump". The curtain dividing the rooms suddenly flew open, and Lenna ran in, nearly slipping on a puddle of water as she yanked a pair of men's laced-front hose higher over her waist to keep them from falling, a vest securely fastened in place of a shirt.

"What's all the commotion?" she gasped, her hair sticking out in every direction from hurriedly tugging the dry clothing over her head.

Bartz threw his hands in the air, trying to look anywhere else in the room save for the now-seething Faris's chest. "Lenna – this – he –"

"Oh, my stars and comets!" Galuf squealed. "HE'S A _SHE_!"

"W-What!?" Lenna gasped, turning to Faris and clasping her hands over her mouth as she drank in exhibits A and B of the evidence laid out before her. "Oh… _oh_ …!"

"Lenna…your pants…" Bartz gulped, spinning around before the inevitable happened. Luckily, she shook herself out of her daze just in time, grabbing hold of the hosiery again before they fell and hurriedly knotting the laces as fast as her shaking fingers could manage.

"Well – maybe I am!" Faris barked, leaping from the desk and kicking away her sodden coat so hard that it nearly smashed a hole through the door as it went flying across the room. "You got a problem with it!?"

 _Ain't no maybes about it_ , Bartz thought, a wave of unexpected relief suddenly washing over him when he realized what all of this meant. The fluttery twinges he got in his stomach whenever Faris flashed him one of her knowing smiles, the way his heart had nearly exploded when he had watched Faris sleep in the spill of sunlight at the inn back in Tule – those strange pangs were all exactly what he had suspected they might be – but _who_ they were for suddenly made a lot more sense. He had been reasonably sure that by this point in his life, he knew what team he was batting for, so-to-speak – but Faris had sure made him second-guess himself _a lot_ for these past few tumultuous days.

"A problem? Of course, not..." Lenna shook her head, flocking to Faris's side and suddenly throwing her arms around the bewildered pirate in a hug. Faris blinked, not knowing what to do, and awkwardly rested her hands on the small of Lenna's back in response. Lenna peered up at her, biting her lip. "Just tell me one thing – why were you trying to hide it? Was it something we did?"

"What?" Faris snorted. "No, no…has nothing to do with the lot of ya."

 _Her incessant demands for privacy, and the way she always kept her men at a distance…_

"The pirates didn't know either, did they?" Bartz asked, and Faris nodded slightly, her fingers pressing deeper into Lenna as she closed her eyes.

"This is a part of me I've kept hidden for as long as I can remember. When I was just a lad – er, lass, a pirate band took me in. They found me wandering incoherently on the beach – the lights were on, but no one was home, or so they said. I've been one of them ever since – the day they found me was when I gave up my identity as a girl. The lie rolled off of my tongue so easily that I had quite nearly convinced myself as soon as I said it. And as time went on, it became imperative that I kept my secret to protect myself – it's part of what motivated me to climb the ranks in our crew, so that if anyone ever _did_ find out, I had enough power and agency of my own to take care of it."

"I don't understand," Bartz frowned. "Why did you feel the need to lie this entire time? Wasn't it just going to get harder to keep it going as you, uh, you know… _matured_?"

Faris glared at him over Lenna's shoulder. "Think about it from my perspective, bub. I was just a little kid, with a pile of mushy seaweed for memory and scared out of my wits. Would _YOU_ want to be the only girl on a ship full of gnarly pirates? It was the only self-defense mechanism I had at the time!"

"...Ah, right," Bartz nodded, blushing for what felt like the hundredth time that day. "Yeah…I guess I can see why not being a girl would come in handy. When you put it that way…it was quite brilliant of you to come up with that under such duress."

"…You couldn't remember anything from before meeting the pirates?" Galuf swallowed, easing himself from the bunk he had crashed into. Suddenly, Faris's obvious discomfort at his telling her he was suffering from amnesia didn't seem so quite out of left field. "Did you ever recover your memories?"

"Not entirely, no," Faris shook her head. "And what came back wasn't worth much more than a glass of seawater in the desert. No one ever came lookin' for me, but I came out all right in the end."

 _Except for the part where you've effectively erased a huge part of your identity,_ Bartz thought. He had so many questions – what did she do when she needed to see a doctor, or needed to, uh…take care of business on a mission with the crew? But his rational side talked him out of asking anything, lest he had another punch to the face coming.

"Haw!" Galuf chuckled, shaking his head. "Beauty, brawn and brains! I _knew_ from the start that you were too pretty to be a man! Phew…"

"Yeah, sure you did," Faris snorted, pulling away from Lenna and pointedly crossing her arms over her chest. "Anyhow – the bottom line is this: Make fun of me for really being a woman and I'll shiver your timbers but good!"

Knowing Faris's true identity, such a threat actually sounded kind of appealing to the two men now. Bartz laughed behind his hand, turning away before Lenna could see how much of an idiot he was. "Uh...okay...!"

Faris bit her lip, suddenly getting the feeling that no one was ever going to take anything she said seriously again. She forced out a throaty laugh in an attempt to mask her way-too-obvious discomfort. "That's right, it's okay! Now, I'm turning in for a nap, and you louts had best do the same! Had I been at full strength, I assure that you wouldn't have gotten as far with me as you did, Bartz Klauser."

"Hmmm?" Lenna blinked, and Bartz nearly choked, his pulse exploding in his ears as he shoved his guilty hands into his pockets.

"U-Understood…"

Faris's eyes darted between the room Lenna had been changing in and the fire, her lips pressing into a thin line. Without another word, she grabbed Lenna by the elbow, dragging her through the parted curtain and promptly yanking it back shut as the princess gave a defeated shrug in Bartz and Galuf's direction. It was only when Faris was totally out of sight that Bartz's heart unearthed itself from his stomach, and he sank into a stunned heap on the floor, eyes unblinking. Galuf sat next to him, shaking his head slowly as he reached up to undo his ponytail.

"Let me guess, boy – was that your first time being with a woman like that?"

"W-What?" Bartz choked. "What in the world are you talking about?"

"Oh, you know," Galuf grinned. "Above the waist petting, as they used to call it in my day."

"Oh, my gods," Bartz moaned, covering his face so that he could attempt to banish the memory of Faris's warm, delicate skin between his fingers. "That's…that's not even close to what happened." He paused for a few moments, arching a brow. "And what makes you think that was my first time, anyway?"

Galuf nearly fell face-first into the fire laughing. "And there's my answer!"

* * *

"Let's see…ah, yes, I think this will work."

Lenna pulled a pair of ivory leggings out of the wardrobe, along with a navy doublet that she would have been swimming in, but realized would fit Faris perfectly. When she turned around, she found Faris sitting on the edge of the bed, peeling off her knee-high boots with great effort. A loud squelch erupted as she finally pulled one off, and Lenna couldn't help but giggle, earning herself another glare.

"Here, let me help you with the other one," she offered, setting the clothes down on the bed and kneeling so that she could take Faris's foot in her lap. With a reluctant sigh, Faris let her hands fall to the down-stuffed mattress, arching her back to give Lenna more leverage.

"…Thanks."

"You're welcome," Lenna chirped, wriggling the boot as she smiled, trying to catch Faris's gaze. She wanted to let her know that she wasn't going to let this be weird – that nothing had to change between them if Faris didn't want it to – but the pirate was expertly avoiding her stare, her eyes glued on the ceiling like something absolutely fascinating was pinned upon it. While Faris was busy being annoyed by the world, Lenna snuck a closer glance at what had gotten Bartz all in a twitter – she wasn't an idiot, after all…did he really think she wouldn't notice how hard he was trying not to stare at Faris's soaking wet… _accessories_? – and felt the breath rush out of her lungs, like she had been punched in the stomach.

 _No…no way… Am I seeing things?_

Hanging just above the trail of undone shirt buttons Faris had attempted while waiting for Lenna to fetch dry clothes, pressed against a sloping curve of sun-kissed skin, was the white gold pendant Bartz had told her about earlier – the one she had so cavalierly dismissed at the time as nothing special. Her heart twisting in confusion, Lenna's eyes fell to the gap between her vest and her collarbone, where her dragon wing necklace hung – it was still there, as she had expected – she would permit herself to lose a limb before she _ever_ let her family's most precious heirloom stray from her sights. She glanced up at Faris again, her tongue turning to sand as her gaze traced over the twin intricate wing softly rising and falling with each breath – it almost looked as if it were about to take off for the horizon, just like when Hiryu had carried her father away from her on the balcony of their castle for the last time…

…How in the world could Faris's pendant have the _exact_ design as her own, right down to the emerald chip nestled on the outermost wing?

"Sarisa?" Lenna whispered, and Faris grunted, suddenly shoving her foot into Lenna's chest.

"Hey, what's taking so long down there? Do my feet stink or something?"

"Um…I…" Lenna swallowed, her fingers falling numb as she let Faris's foot fall back into her lap. "I'm…sorry. All of a sudden, I got…dizzy."

"Forget about it," Faris muttered, sitting back up and hoisting her leg over her knee. "Go sit out with the perverts by the fire for a while, and get your strength back up. If they try anything, come back straight here and wake me up."

"O-Okay," Lenna nodded, grateful for an excuse to flee and collect her harried thoughts. She scrambled to her feet, grabbing her wet dress and shoes before disappearing through the curtain without a moment's hesitation.

 _No…it simply cannot be…_

 _…My heart…it's playing tricks on me…again. Father…if you were only here…!_

* * *

A few hours later, Faris found herself rousing from a dreamless sleep, surprisingly energetic for someone who had fallen asleep in a mess of damp clothes and who could no longer remember when she had taken her last meal.

 _Ahhh, slept like a log! I wonder if it's because I'm back on a ship… I kinda feel like someone out there is watching over me, for us to find a place like this to hide for a few hours…_

 _…Syldra, was it you?_

She slipped out of bed, tip-toeing to the curtain and peeking through the crack to see if anyone else was up. But Bartz, Galuf and Lenna were all passed out cold, Bartz and Galuf on the floor with Lenna tucked away in one of the bunks. Their fire had put itself out, leaving the room with a smoky taste that reminded Faris of nights where she would fall asleep, against her best judgment, on the deck of her ship next to the fire underneath a blanket of stars. It was always dangerous for her to leave herself so open and vulnerable, but sometimes the lure of dreaming bathed in moonlight and waking up in a salt-kissed splendor was too much for even her to resist. Even if something were to happen that threatened the sanctity of her secret, she had always subconsciously carried the hope that her dragon would somehow come to her rescue – the two of them could always sense when one another was in danger, and had made countless perilous escapes throughout their adventures together to prove it.

And Syldra had been the only living soul – well, until now – that had known who she _really_ was.

Satisfied that the others wouldn't wake up yet, she stripped off her wet clothes, depositing them in a heap on the floor and changing into the outfit Lenna had laid out. She pulled open the wardrobe, scrutinizing herself carefully in the tarnished mirror as she slowly shook her head.

This was, quite possibly, the least amount of clothing she had worn in the last decade – and though she doubted she would be running into her old crew anytime soon (hell, she wasn't entirely positive she was going to be leaving this graveyard alive), it still didn't feel quite right – something was missing.

She dug around in the wardrobe, extracting a cotton jade cloak that would bequeath her the illusion of wider, stronger shoulders and do well at hiding the weapons at her waist – among other things. After tying it on and releasing her hair from the knot atop her head, she took another look in the mirror, this time nodding with approval.

"Rise and shine, dullards!" Faris barked as she strode into the next room, planting her foot into Bartz's backside as she stepped over him. "Time's a-wasting!"

"Ugh…how long did we sleep?" Lenna moaned, sitting up as Bartz tumbled over from Faris's kick, not daring to say anything in retaliation other than a half-groggy ' _hello_ '.

"Not long, I'd wager," Faris shrugged, turning to glare at Galuf, who hadn't moved an inch from his spot on the floor. "What's his problem? Did he finally expire on us?"

"Faris," Lenna chided. "That's not very nice." She hadn't said much to Bartz and Galuf when she had returned from Faris's room – and thankfully, they hadn't grilled her about anything that had happened – everyone had been on the cusp of passing out from shock and exhaustion by then, and she couldn't remember much beyond crawling into bed and closing her eyes. She had mentally pledged to herself that she would ask Faris about her pendant after they had secured the Crystal of Water – they had much bigger things to worry about than her own pithy drama, after all…

"Hey, old man!" Faris screeched. "That's enough lollygagging from the likes of you! On your feet! Let's go!"

"Bah...!" Galuf's eyes snapped open, and he managed to roll away just before Faris brought her foot forward to greet his shin, quickly leaping to his feet and scratching the back of his head in sleepy disappointment as he took in her new, decidedly androgynous outfit. "If you aren't gonna dress like a girl – and you should, a real shame to hide such assets – y'could at least talk like one..."

"Heh..." Bartz shook his head, smiling. "No point in trying to change her... Faris is who she is! If we're the only people she's gonna trust with her secret, then she should feel free to be her real self around us, huh?"

 _Bartz…!_ Faris felt a twinge of warmth rise in her cheeks as she desperately fought the urge to smile. _You sappy bastard!_

"That's for certain!" Lenna laughed, clapping her hands together. "Faris, do you have a plan? Your energy is contagious!"

"No plan," Faris declared, watching with a twisted satisfaction as everyone's face fell. "Just get yourselves dressed and prepare to move out."

 _She seems back to normal_ , Bartz thought as he pulled on his dry clothes (Faris had made it a point to escort Lenna into the other room after Lenna had retrieved her dress). _I am glad for it…_

After everyone was clothed and accounted for, Faris lead them through the door that was being blocked by the crates in the captain's quarters, Galuf and Lenna pawing through the crates as Faris and Bartz moved them to see if they could find anything edible (though they failed to do so). A short flight of steps deposited them on the main deck, and much to everyone's surprise, despite the later hour, the fog had greatly subsided that had been surrounding the graveyard of ships. The sky was still tinged an ominous violet, stained deeper with the setting sun, but they could actually see better than they had been able to their entire time in this forsaken place.

"It's so quiet…" Lenna whispered, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear as she stepped forward. "No more wind…and the water has stopped moving, too."

"You'd think the undead would be more active at dusk," Galuf muttered. "Best be on our guard."

Bartz had wandered over to the ship's bow, where he had found something glimmering and abandoned on the deck. When he bent down to pick it up, he realized it was a scope – though positively ancient, it still seemed to function – miraculously, none of the glass was cracked. He brushed the narrow end against the tail of his tunic to wipe away the filth that had accumulated and extended it, making a slow sweep across the horizon. There were yet more ships – of course – but when he turned to the northwest, he realized he was no longer staring at towers of rotting wood, and a pool of blackened water – but rather a thin strip of sand that almost seemed to glow in an ethereal spill of bleached ivory. And rising behind it, consuming the entirety of the sky and fading into the haze of clouds above, was a jagged mountain range.

"You guys!" he exclaimed, nearly dropping the scope in his excitement. "There's land – and not too far from here, either!"

"What!?" A chorus of excitement rose from behind him, and he handed off the scope to the first person to run up to him, Faris. She lifted it in the direction he was pointing, twisting her lips as an appreciative chuckle bubbled from her throat.

"It's still too dark to see, but…there just might be a way through – I think I see a cave. Shall we roll the dice?"

They crossed the next several collapsed ships, thankfully not having to forge any new paths in their freshly-dried clothes through open bodies of water or flooded vessels. Once they were adjacent to the beach, Faris managed to rig the final ship's gangplank into working again (with a lot of kicking and swearing) so that all they had to do was slide down it at an awkward tilt in to be deposited back onto land. Galuf made a big show of kissing the ground and throwing sand into the air, but Faris had already taken off running to their next destination – a darkened maw nestled several yards away in the mountainside, just barely illuminated by the sliver of burgeoning moonlight that had somehow managed to fight its way through the clouds. They had been so preoccupied with trying to reach the land that no one had witnessed the sun's expiration for the night.

But when Bartz, Lenna and Galuf had finally managed to catch up to her, they found nothing inside the cavern but a soaring ceiling lined with stalactites that were coated with frozen saltwater and a crescent-shaped cove of water that was the color of overripe plums. Faris was paused in the middle of the cavern, staring ahead confusedly.

"Huh…from the taste of the air in this place, it feels like there hasn't been anyone in here for a very, very long time – yet I saw footsteps in the sands when I made my approach."

"What!?" Lenna squeaked. Neither she, or the guys, had noticed such a detail – they were too focused on not losing sight of Faris's banner of purple hair as they had been sprinting across the beach.

Bartz wrapped his arms around himself to fight off the chill that had sunk into his marrow as soon as he had stepped foot inside the cavern, blinking in surprise when he saw his breath transform into a puffy cloud in front of him after a weary sigh.

"Something's fishy about this place, and it ain't cod..."

The sound of delicate footfalls, ringing in the air like a crystalline bell, suddenly filled the cavern. The light warriors silently turned to each other in unison, wondering whom among them had started to walk again, and realized quickly as the echoes continued on that the footsteps belonged to none of them.

"Where is that coming from?" Faris hissed, whirling around. No one had come in from behind them the way they had come in on the beach…

"T-There, I think!" Galuf gulped, pointing ahead. The darkness in the rear of the cavern had taken on a queer sheen, rippling back and forth like an unfurling ribbon – another round of footsteps greeted them, these with far more urgency than the rest – and a willowy figure emerged in a spill of moonlight that suddenly scattered across the cavern floor, eyes the color of ice flashing across the chamber. Bartz felt his heart twist in his chest as he blinked and stepped forward, not believing what he was seeing. The figure's eyes fell upon his, and a slow smile stretched across blood-red lips, a rogue tendril of hunter green hair curling just so above the swell of her breasts. She opened her arms wide, tilting her head as her sweeping eyelashes casted shadows over her moonlit-stained cheeks, the pale pink of the blood vessels that were perpetually ruptured beneath her sunken gaze glowing with a fae-like radiance.

"Bartz..." she gasped softly, her smile widening as her eyes spilled over with glimmering tears. "Come closer…my most precious one. You've grown so much…I can hardly believe my eyes."

 _How…how can this be? She looks exactly the same…the same as that spring morning she…_

He could feel his lips tugging into a matching smile, the arches of his cheeks glowing with the same pale sheen as hers. The cold that had been racking his body dissipated into a pleasing numbness as he glided into the moonlight and reached for her, an infantile lilt permeating his voice as he sank into her arms and buried his face in her hair. It smelled like he had always remembered – a heady mix of the wind-drenched Moon Lily from the tea she brewed for Dorgann, and a vague metallic sweetness from the medicine she took every morning before rousing him from slumber.

"Mom…!"


	6. Transformation

6: Transformation

"Bartz?" Lenna's voice cracked as she watched him stagger, trance-like, into the arms of the strange woman who had materialized before them. She resembled a human-sized porcelain doll with her wide, glassy eyes and painted smile, her delicate arms swimming in the sleeves of her canary yellow dress and stark white against Bartz's tunic as she clutched him tighter against her. She gazed over his shoulder straight at Lenna, tilting her head with a knowing lift of her lips that made a shiver jolt down the princess's spine. It was like being stared down by a female version of Bartz, but stripped of all the warm light normally bubbling beneath his approachable façade.

 _Did he say "Mom"? He had mentioned his father's passing, but now that I think of it, he hasn't breathed a word about his mother…what in the world is she doing in a place like this?_

 _She looks gravely ill…has she been stranded here all by herself?_

"Come here, honey..."

A familiar voice with the same silky timbre celebrated in music halls the world over reverberated through the chamber, forcing Lenna's confused observations to die mid-thought. The sound of steel scraping over rock hummed like a mechanical heart, and another figure came forth from the darkness, joining Bartz and his mother in the spill of moonlight. A tendril of pearlescent fog that had been silently rising from the water surrounding them swirled about a pair of azure platinum-imbued greaves and a tattered periwinkle cape. Lenna gasped, the fear and anxiety that had been fermenting inside her gut since they had lost Syldra now draining away through the soles of her feet. It was replaced by a dizzying warmth that flowed through her blood like she had just taken a healthy swig of brandywine. She found her legs carrying her to him in four pirouette-like strides, her arms thrusting upward in an effort to scale his staggering height. He met her half-way, grasping her waist and swinging her around in the air with a muted laugh.

"Father!"

"Lenna!" Faris and Galuf cried. Faris chased after Lenna before Galuf could stop her, the fog dancing between Faris's endless legs as she suddenly stopped short and peered up at Lenna and Tycoon, who simultaneously extended their hands toward the pirate, curious twin crooked smiles flashing welcomingly. Faris blinked, the light fading from her eyes as she staggered a few steps forward and grasped Lenna's hand, turning her back to Galuf.

"Faris!?" Galuf gulped. "Not you too? Come on, now…" He laughed nervously to himself, not able to help but feel a little left out even as his heart began to hammer harder and harder. A third figure joined Stella and Tycoon, silently jostling her way to the front with jutted elbows and furrowed brows. Layers of thick, bouncy curls were piled at the top of her head with a pink ribbon, cascading down her back like a waterfall made from liquid sunshine. She wore a lavender-dyed jumper that fell past her knees and a cream hooded jacket, pink fur-cuffed ankle boots adding middling inches to her diminutive stature – she was hardly over five feet tall in socks. A carefully polished rose-quartz pendant hung around her neck, igniting the ethereal blue undertones of her whipped cream complexion. A pair of chocolate, doe-like eyes fluttered in Galuf's direction as she stepped forward, pushing her bangs behind her ear.

"Grandpa, over here...!"

"Huh?" Galuf shook his head, turning to make sure there was no one else behind him. But sure enough, he was alone...was that girl really talking to him? He crossed his arms over his chest, raising one apologetic eyebrow. "Who are you? I…I just can't remember…"

"What!?" The girl blinked, her lips twisting in confusion. For a brief second, her eyes flashed crimson, and Galuf winced, inching his hand closer to his sword as she hissed under her breath, the sugary-sweetness of her voice evaporating. "And just what is _that_ supposed to mean?"

There came a piercing shriek, the moonlight in the cavern suddenly fading to milky dusk as the fog rushed forward in an opaque curtain, swallowing the young girl whole. Bartz, Lenna and Faris all slumped to the ground in a heap of dead weight, their eyes rolling in the backs of their heads as glowing blue orbs elevated from their chests, hovering precariously and bathing them in a sickly luminous spill. Tycoon and Stella disappeared, flickering to life in their place a woman clad in an emerald and sapphire bustier that was swaddled in a blue, oversized silken ribbon tied around her waist. Locks of waist-length yellow hair were tied back from the sides of her face, and her hands were protected by green gloves that ran the length of her forearms and extended, unsettlingly, into five pointed claws that threatened to tear through the delicate fabric containing them if she so much as sneezed. She floated to Galuf, a pair of delicate fangs the color of unblemished piano keys gleaming menacingly between glossy pink lips that he could see his stunned reflection in.

"Just let me have your soul...become one of us! Was the vision I brought to you not pleasing enough?"

"V-vision!?" Galuf gasped. _Tycoon…the woman with Bartz and the blonde girl…they were fakes!_ "What kind of demon are you?"

"Oho..." She shook her head, crossing her arms under her chest. "I didn't expect any of you to escape the effects of my magic...but it would seem you are still more than conscious."

"You're damn right I am!" Galuf huffed. "Are you that Siren lady that Faris was going on about earlier?"

She giggled, her body beneath the bustier moving up and down tantalizingly with each throaty breath. Galuf thought to himself that if she had tried to hypnotize him with her natural assets, she would have probably had much better luck than using some random teenage girl. "Greetings. I am indeed Siren – I see my reputation precedes me! But I'm afraid none of that matters – your companions' souls now belong to me. Still, I'm feeling a bit generous thanks to the entertaining show you've put on… I _could_ be convinced to spare your soul if you ran home quietly."

Galuf laughed, shaking his head. "You think I would abandon these kids? Fat chance, missy!"

"W-what!?" Siren narrowed her eyes, which Galuf noticed for the first time were utterly bereft of light. "Why would you risk your life for these people? They rushed to abandon you the first chance something better came along!" She gestured behind her, where ghostly images of Tycoon and Stella flickered menacingly in the depths of the fog.

"Because..." Galuf lowered his head, not wanting Siren to see the small smile that had formed on his lips. "…They're my friends! They've already done more for me than I would ever have any right to expect – if going through hell and back does anything to _really_ unite them with their loved ones, I'm going to do whatever it takes to make that happen. I guess you wouldn't understand, since no one would dare to come near you without your lousy magic!"

"Your…friends!?" Siren hissed, clenching her fists. "Don't be ridiculous! I've seen inside all of your hearts…you hardly know each other! Try me with another lie, and you'll lose your head!"

"It's not a lie!" Galuf growled, wincing as a searing pain tore across his chest. _Something is burning me alive…more of her magic!?_ "You obviously didn't look closely enough…it may be the only thing we have in common, but we all have the same dream – and that's to save our world!" He stumbled backward as he frantically reached into his gilet to find the source of the flames tearing into his skin. His fingers blindly closed around his crystal shard, his eyes widening when a pulse of tremendous power surged through his veins, igniting his tendons with an adrenaline that shook his every cell awake. Siren's lips twitched as she backed away, not liking whatever it was that was transpiring before her. He pulled the crystal out, revealing between clenched fingers a blinding spill of luminescence that transformed the walls of the dank cavern into reflective prisms.

 _Whoa…this feeling…!_ Galuf closed his eyes, lifting his hand in the air as the crystal gently floated away from his grip, hovering overhead and casting a barrier of light between himself and Siren that burned her claws when she dared to tear through it. _The power flowering through me…it's so foreign, yet deeply nostalgic at the same time…I've felt this somehow before in my past…there can be no doubt about it!_

"Aieeeee!" Siren screamed, shielding her face with her arms as the light grew yet brighter. "Stop it! Stop it right now!"

Galuf's eyes fluttered open as he peered through the light at the others, who were still collapsed on the floor, those ominous blue orbs still hanging over them.

 _It's not too late…she hasn't harvested their souls yet. I have to find a way to wake them up…_ He looked up at the crystal, extending his fingers and summoning it back into his grip with a command that escaped his lips before he could even realize the magic he was weaving. It was all coming back to him…the muscle memory of bending the power hidden within the divine crystals to his own will…

 _Warriors of Light from a fallen age…I call upon your power! Bless me with the strength of spirit I need to revive my friends!_

A wash of emerald light climbed up Galuf's body just as it had in the Wind Shrine, transforming his clothes into billowing white robes with coral chevron trim along the drooping sleeves and the hood hanging down his back. In place of his sword, a mythril-plated staff materialized in his hands, a delicate diamond inset in the center of its spiral head. He grasped the staff tightly, his jaw clenched as he pointed it toward his fallen comrades and fired off a chain of Raise spells like had been casting white magic the entirety of his life. A flurry of rainbow-tinted feathers rained down from the cavern ceiling, sinking into Bartz, Lenna and Faris and imbuing them with holy light as the blue orbs above them glimmered and sank away back into their chests. Behind them, the flickering doppelgängers of Tycoon and Stella disappeared once and for all, banishing the choking fog along with them.

"Don't be fooled by her trickery!" Galuf cried, lowering his staff. "Open your eyes!"

"Nooooo!" Siren screamed, whirling around to face Galuf as her pale peach skin began to meld into a sinister, flushed pink, glowing red veins erupting from her temples and cheeks as the blonde in her hair gave way to cold gray strands that clumped together in filthy, tattered tendrils resembling molting snakes.

 _"Bartz…it's time to wake up…time to greet another beautiful day…"_

 _"Mom…? Is that you…?"_

Bartz's eyes fluttered open just as a pair of spiny black bat wings tore through the haunches of Siren's back, lifting her higher off the ground. He couldn't remember a thing that had happened, or why he was on the ground, but he figured none of what was happening in front of him meant anything good. His vision strained to focus as he shot straight up and reached for Galuf, screaming with what little strength he had yet returned to him.

"Galuf! _Look out_!"

But Galuf had already calculated his next move – before Siren could descend upon him, he swung his staff over his head, spinning it around his fingers so that the end pointed directly for Siren's chest. With a nauseating crack, she threw herself into the staff in her haste to attack him, a rich spill of ruby red blossoming across her torso as she stared down at Galuf, dead-eyed with her lips twisted in shock.

"I may have amnesia, but that didn't mean I forgot the undead aren't very fond of mythril," Galuf smirked, slamming the staff to the ground and pinning Siren's writhing body beneath him. " _Cura_!"

A blast of gold-tinged blue sparks ignited from the staff, swirling in a torrent over Siren's body and tracing along the violently glowing veins that had erupted all over her skin. A moments later, she burst into a cloud of heady ash, filling the cavern with a smock of filth that took several minutes to completely clear. When the last of Siren had finally drifted away, the darkness in the rear of the cavern dissolved, revealing a clean path of moonlight that lead to another beach. Bartz, who had been joined back in the living by Lenna and Faris, were all staring at Galuf, utterly dumbfounded.

"Holy buccaneers!" Faris suddenly burst, breaking the spell of awkward silence. "Your clothes! What happened!?"

"And your powers!" Lenna squeaked. "Where did you learn white magic like that!?"

"Galuf!" Bartz shook his head, still in disbelief at what he had witnessed – if his head still hadn't been hurting so bad, he would have sworn it was all just a dream. "You saved us...I owe you my life – and like, every single one after, if reincarnation is a thing."

"Ehh," Galuf tittered, suddenly turning red as he hid his staff behind his back. "Don't sweat it."

"Aww, you're blushing!" Bartz howled.

"I'm doing nothing of the sort!"

"Oh!" Lenna gasped, suddenly jutting her finger at their savior. "The crystal fragment…!"

Four pairs of eyes darted to the shard hovering on its own over Galuf's outstretched palm, the crystal scintillating with the same divine light they had witnessed in the Wind Shrine when they had been blessed with their "essences" – the last of the crystal's life before its light had died away, seemingly forever. But now it was back – and shining more brilliantly than it ever had in their possession. Bartz felt the familiar warmth prickling against his chest, and reached in his tunic, retrieving his own crystal. Sure enough, it was glowing exactly the same as Galuf's – and when Lenna and Faris revealed theirs, they found the same to be true as well.

"I…I don't understand," Bartz said softly. "After all this time…why now?"

"I have a theory," Galuf clutched his crystal, closing his eyes. Moments later, his white mage robes disappeared in a flash of light, leaving him back in his old clothes and holding his trusty sword instead of the majestic staff. Bartz, Lenna and Faris could only stare as he walked over to join them, collapsing in an inelegant heap on the ground since they had all been too stunned to get up. "It was something Siren said – it awakened a memory within me."

"Eh, that was Siren?" Faris snorted. "She wasn't nearly as cute as I was expecting. What a letdown."

"A memory!?" Bartz gasped as he cut Faris a wondrous glance. He really wanted to ask just what exactly she _had_ been expecting, but now didn't seem so appropriate, with the whole discovering otherworldly powers crisis they were currently dealing with. He turned back to Galuf, shaking the ludicrous train of thought about Faris out of his head. "So, you've recovered from your amnesia?"

"Hardly," Galuf laughed, albeit with a tinge of sadness. "I guess 'memory' is a strong word – it's more like, an instinct. When she told me that she had looked into our hearts, something sparked inside me – and I came to realize what it was that granted a light warrior their powers. It's not just the crystal itself – it's when a person's heart resonates with the hearts of their fellow warriors that the true strength of the crystal is unveiled."

"Huh?" Faris crossed her arms. "Like, we weren't in sync with each other?"

"Possibly," Galuf nodded. "There's certainly been enough happening to keep us distracted from our mission, right?"

A telling silence fell over the group – _that_ had been the understatement of the century. Between Galuf's amnesia, Syldra and King Tycoon's disappearances, and Bartz's entire existence being turned upside down in mere days…yes, much had happened that would weigh upon any heart, no matter how valiant.

 _Galuf…in your past life, were you somehow involved with the crystals?_ Bartz wondered, his pulse pounding erratically as he ducked his head, desperate to avoid being caught staring. _Is that why you felt compelled to follow Lenna to the Wind Shrine? Why you suddenly were able to remember something so critical about the warriors of light?_ He couldn't help but draw a parallel to his father and the suddenly resurfacing memories of Dorgann's reluctance to disclose any of his work with the crystals to his only son.

 _"Stella – our promise still stands, right? If anything should happen to me, never tell Bartz about the crystals… They aren't his burden to bear. What I've done…I never want my sins to influence the direction his life should take…"_

 _It's too late now, Dad…somehow, the crystals have chosen me for what now needs done._

 _And both you and Mom are gone…_

 _She took your promise to the grave, just like you asked._

Faris was doing some pondering of her own about this new development, snorting unceremoniously as she blew a lock of hair out of her face. But Lenna had had enough of the dreary hush that had overtaken them, suddenly launching herself from the ground and throwing her arms around Galuf's neck. "Oh Galuf, thank you again! I can't believe we let Siren trick us…what exactly did she do? I can't remember a thing since entering the cave."

"…Just some sort of charm magic," Galuf said quietly, patting her on the back. The image of the petite blonde girl filled his mind, those wide, innocent eyes turning his blood to ice. _That child…she called me 'Grandpa'. Was that another one Siren's tricks, or is she really my…?_ He shook his head, blinking away the tears that had crept into the corners of his eyes before pulling away.

"…Yeah, must have been a charm. I wouldn't worry about it."

* * *

Bartz could scarcely believe his eyes when they emerged from the cave. He had become so used to the dim and gloomy surroundings of the water-logged graveyard that when his feet first crunched through a spill of gravel and dried clumps of dirt, he forced himself to pause and had to do a double-take of their surroundings.

The strip of beach they had escaped to after Siren's concealing magic had faded away had quickly given way to patches of salt-stained tallgrass and a long-neglected dirt road that wandered south into the nighttime horizon. Bartz spun around toward the strip of mountains from which they had come, realizing from this perspective that what had seemed like a nigh-impassable mountain range had just been an elevated cape. He could only assume by the boundless waves of lapping midnight blue spread before them that they had long-since exited the canal and had been swept away into what was _hopefully_ the Walsian sea.

"Does this look familiar to anyone?" Galuf asked hopefully. There were no posts along the road giving them any indication of where they might be heading.

"Not a bit," Faris and Lenna sighed in unison, a queer gleam settling in both their stares as they hurriedly looked away from each other. Bartz made a mental note to ask Lenna about that later – she had been acting kind of strange ever since Faris had kicked her out of the captain's quarters to sleep, but he had figured maybe she needed some time to process Faris's big reveal. He had even dared to assume that Lenna would be _happier_ with another woman around – but maybe that wasn't the case?

"If only we had a map…" Bartz murmured. He could picture exactly where he had last seen theirs – spread across the table in Faris's "war room" on their enemy-overtaken ship, waiting patiently for its owner's return that would now never happen.

"…Wait a minute." Faris pulled out her crystal shard, holding it up to her eye. "We might not have a map – but maybe one of our fellow light warriors had one we can borrow."

"Huh?" Lenna paused mid-step, peering up at Faris. "I don't understand."

"You!" Faris barked, pointing at Galuf with the crystal. "When you transformed before, your clothes and your weapon changed, right? Did you notice anything else different?"

"I hardly had time to notice anything!" Galuf huffed. "I was too busy trying to revive your hypnotized behind!"

"What are you getting at?" Bartz asked nervously. He now had been around Faris long enough to understand that when she was formulating a plan, it could get a little scary for those in her immediate vicinity.

"Don't you remember the warriors blessed by the Crystal of Wind?" Faris asked impatiently, twirling the crystal shard between her fingers. "One of them was a white mage, right? That's how Galuf was able to transform into one to fight Siren. And the others…?"

"Um…" Lenna pressed her lips together. "Well, there was a black mage too, along with a knight, a monk, and a blue mage… Wasn't there one more?"

"Oh, and a thief!" Galuf interjected. "And any thief worth his salt would have plenty of maps on-hand for plotting his marks!"

"Exactly," Faris grinned, pleased that someone had finally gotten a taste of her brilliance. "So, tell me what I gotta do to summon this thief so we can be on our merry way already."

"W-Wait!" Lenna gasped, taking Faris's hand. "Don't be so cavalier about this! We don't know anything about transforming…!"

"It's not dangerous, Lenna," Galuf smiled. "It's kind of hard to describe, but when it's all over, you feel like a million gil." When her expression didn't move an inch, he gently pried her hand from Faris's, patting it assuringly. "You're just going to have to believe in my half-baked memory for this one, OK?"

"I want to see Faris transform too," Bartz grinned. "I feel cheated that I missed Galuf's big moment!"

"Oh, Bartz…" Lenna sighed, slumping over to his side as if she were afraid of Faris suddenly turning radioactive. She trusted Galuf at his word, but still didn't much like the idea of calling upon the crystals all willy-nilly – it all seemed quite blasphemous as she recalled the somber tone her father had used when bequeathing them with their mission. "Very well. Commence when you are ready."

"T-This isn't for your entertainment …!" Faris sputtered, a wave of red rushing up her face. "Turn around, all of you! I don't want you staring at me like some side-show!"

"Don't worry about them," Galuf soothed. "Just concentrate on what it is you want to do – ask the crystal for its strength."

"Ugh…fine," Faris relented, holding the crystal in the air and closing her eyes – if she couldn't stop everyone from gawking, then she was going to at least block it out and pretend she didn't have an audience. "Crystal…um…make me a thief already, would ya?"

"Not like _that_ ," Galuf said, and Bartz and Lenna clasped their hands to their mouths to mute their laughter. "Are you taking this seriously? Concentrate – and _pray_!"

"Pray…" Faris muttered, scrunching up her nose like a rabbit. "Haven't done that in a while…OK." She clamped her mouth shut, clutching the crystal tighter within her fingers. The light within the crystal shard began to pulse brighter, and a warm wind suddenly assailed the group, sending Faris's hair and cloak rippling in a wave of shimmering light as her feet lifted several inches off the ground. A sheen of ruby luster enveloped her body, absorbing her clothes and transforming her into a lithe figure of multiplying starlight before their eyes.

"Oh…!" Lenna gasped, and Bartz was shocked to realize that her hand had found its way into his. He squeezed her fingers gingerly, unable to tear himself away from the breathtakingly chaotic spectacle unfolding only feet away.

 _This ruby light…it's the same color as a vial of phoenix down…as brilliant as shooting star burning across the horizon…_

 _Is this the manifestation of Faris's crystal essence…her courage? It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen…_

Another gust of wind came, ushering away the all-encompassing light as Faris's feet touched the ground once more. She held up her hands in bewilderment, flexing her newly leather-clad fingers before twisting her hips to get a good look at herself. Her stolen clothes from the ship had been replaced by an airy, taupe shift that hung just above her knees, wrapped around the waist with a plain brown belt bag that looked utterly unremarkable in every way. Olive green tights were tucked into feather-light sheepskin ankle-high boots with soft, padded soles that wouldn't leave a trace even in the densest of sands. Her hair was tied back with a sun-faded orange and yellow striped folded bandana, concealing a messy bun of violet hair beneath. If she were to lurk in the background of any typical village, it would surely be hours before anyone would actually notice her – she was still _their_ Faris, but it was as if someone had stripped her down to her most basic self, dampening the natural vitality that seemed to effortlessly draw anyone into her orbit.

"Did it really work?" Faris asked the open-mouthed gawkers, shrugging a small knapsack off her shoulders and tearing through the ties keeping it shut with the same speed a kid could rip open a box of candy. Her sudden ability to nimbly unfasten any knot seemed to answer her own question, and she laughed as she flipped the lid of the bag open, dumping it upside down for everyone to see. A tidy pile of rolled-up papers tumbled out, along with a knife, a spool of wire, smoke bombs, and a pair of chain cutters.

"I'd say so!" Bartz gasped. If those _weren't_ the tools of the thief trade, then it meant the spirit who occupied the crystal had some pretty interesting (or disturbing, depending on your outlook) hobbies.

"How do you feel?" Lenna blinked. "Any different?"

"Not really," Faris shrugged, kneeling down to snatch up one of the papers. "Just…lighter. Like I could take on a chocobo in a race and totally leave 'em in the dust." She unfurled the paper, raising one eyebrow. Although she didn't recognize the location, the drawing in front of her appeared to be the blueprints to a massive manor – not unlike Zok's in both size and elegance. "Although I am kinda getting the urge to try to steal something, too."

"No, no, no!" Lenna gulped. "None of that, please." She grabbed another one of the papers, unrolling it and letting out a squeal of joy. "The gods be praised, this is it! A world map!"

"I can't believe that actually worked," Galuf chuckled as he, Bartz and Faris crowded in to look over Lenna's shoulder. "So, where do you suppose we are?"

"Give me some light," Lenna murmured, and three crystal shards were instantly thrust before her, igniting the time-worn map in a cheerful yellow glow. Her eyes darted over the eastern portion of the map slowly, her finger gingerly circling around a large body of water plainly labeled "Walsian Sea".

"That's where the canal empties, right?" Bartz asked, and Lenna nodded, dragging her finger directly across the sea to an inlet surrounded by several dots.

"Yes. Walse Castle and Walse are down here – that was the route we were to take from the canal. But this line of mountains…" She bit her lip as she tapped a stretch of cape directly north of the marker for Walse Castle, and the four of them glanced up from the map in unison, eyeing the cavern they had recently exited. "…Is where we appear to have been dropped off."

"Well, it could be worse," Bartz offered sheepishly. The truth was, however, "worse" left for a very slim margin of error. The portion of the continent that Walse sat upon made up the entire eastern coastline of the Walsian Sea, the other half surrounded by mountainous, unoccupied stretches of land that ran north of Tycoon and south of the Wind Shrine, respectively – with only the Torna Canal acting as the gateway to the western territories. Short of washing up in the dense, monster-ridden forests and mountains that fell northeast of Tycoon, they really couldn't have strayed much further off course.

Galuf shrugged, lowering his crystal. "Best course of action for now is to hoof it to the closest village and regroup. We can't expect to make it all the way to Walse half-starved and exhausted – unless Faris has anything else in her magic bag of tricks that can set up a campsite." He gave her a wink, and she slammed her foot into the back of his knee before he could draw his next breath.

"You ain't ever gonna see inside my bag of tricks, so keep dreaming," she glowered.

"The closest village would be Carwen," Lenna said between clenched teeth, trying her best to ignore the devious undertones in their sparring. Her eyes trailed down the length of the coast from their presumed location on the cape to the small dot labeled as such inside a small bay. According to the map's legend, Carwen was still several hours' worth of walking away – but did they have any choice?

Over the escalation of Galuf and Faris's snipping and Bartz's desperation to mediate before they came to blows, she swore she could hear a gentle whisper tickle the cuff of her ear. Her crystal palpitated with a fluttering wave of warmth against her hip, and even through the tightly-woven fabric of her dress, she could see the faint outline of the shard's light emanating from her pocket.

 _This voice urging me forward…it sounds just like the wind…_

* * *

"Any luck, my dear?"

"N-No…"

The girl shook her head, a bounty of golden curls jostling down the exposed back of her nightgown that had become untied at some point in the night during the throes of her troubled sleep. She shifted in the luxurious panel of stuffed velvet that made up the bench in her bay window so that she was not rudely speaking with her back to her visitor, her fingers automatically reaching for the rose quartz pendant hanging from her neck. Even as she stroked the one broad, smoothened side of the irregular stone with mechanical indifference, she was mentally chastising herself for giving in to her nervous tic yet again.

The figure that filled the girl's bedroom threshold sighed, tilting his head. He too, was in his bedclothes, but had at least gotten a few consecutive hours of rest before he had suddenly been jolted awake by what he had thought was a distant scream. Of course, his first instinct was to run immediately to his charge – but he had not found her in any danger, and based on the half-coma he had found her in when he had arrived, he was beginning to suspect that the scream was just part of a nightmare. It seemed that everyone in Bal had been plagued with more of those as of late, though the poor girl suffered most dearly of them all.

"You've been sitting there since I last left you, have you not? Please, try to get some sleep – tomorrow is another day, after all."

"But this was my last idea…I thought for sure someone would answer me this time…" She lowered her head, stifling a sob. "How is it possible that no one or nothing has seen him?"

"I don't know, dear," the man sighed, pushing his glasses higher on his nose as he crossed the room and sat down next to her. She slumped against his shoulder, banishing her tears with a swipe of her palm. The truth was, he didn't understand the extent of her latent abilities – not many people did, and even for a girl with a pedigree as exceptional as her own, they were still considered extraordinary – but he too, had been convinced that this time, she would have found some sort of clue... To hear otherwise devastated him nearly as much as it did her, but he couldn't let her on to his own agony – she was shouldering enough of her own as it was. "But you've exhausted yourself – that much is plain to see. Do you want some medicine to help you sleep? You'll see, it will make a world of difference…"

"Nnn…Grandpa…"

He paused mid-lecture, glancing down at her. Her shadow-lined brown eyes were screwed tightly shut, and her rosebud-shaped mouth was pursed in a half-frown. Without further ado, he scooped her up into his arms and promptly tucked her into her lace-embellished canopy bed, making it a point to draw the curtains shut as tightly as possible so that nary a snatch of moonlight could possibly wake her back up. He nearly reached for the pendant around her neck so that she wouldn't risk strangling herself in her sleep, but after a few moments, his fingers curled back, thinking better of it. It wasn't like he hadn't put her to bed hundreds of times before wearing the darn thing – and now it seemed almost cruel to take it away, even if only for a night.

 _The poor girl…that's all she has left of anyone that she could once call family._

* * *

The innkeeper blinked in surprise when she saw the door to her shop slide open, the brass bell hanging over head jingling a bit too cheerfully for that time of night. The very few times she had ever needed to deal with a potential patron in a village like Carwen after the stroke of midnight usually involved drunken sailors that had accidentally wandered out of the attached pub owned by her uncle while looking for the toilet, or simpleton boyfriends who couldn't follow instructions when she directed them to meet her at the building's rear entrance (where the rest of her family was least likely to congregate). But the unusually warm evening brought neither of those things for her tonight – instead, she found herself staring down a sleepy-eyed, spiky-haired man in clothes that looked as if he had slept in them for weeks, a man old enough to be his grandfather, a slender man – or was that a _woman_? – giving her the stink eye underneath a bandana, and a pink-haired, fair-skinned woman that looked more at home on the cover of a fairytale than with this motley crew.

"Do you have any rooms?" Lenna asked sweetly, and the innkeeper slowly nodded, wondering now that she looked closer at the tall, androgynous figure's manner of dress if she was about to get robbed. Hedging her bets, she made a show of retrieving the last key she had on the hooks behind her, as if to indicate they were packed and that any trouble would invite many curious witnesses.

(Of course, what was not obvious from this display was that most of those "witnesses" were passed out from partying too hard, since the sailors who frequented Carwen on their normal trade routes now had nothing else to do since their ships had been stalled in the windless harbor.)

"Of course," the woman nodded, sliding the key over to Lenna and pushing a thick lock of curly black hair behind her ears. "But I have to apologize – I also don't keep any change this time of night – are you able to pay an exact amount of 40 gil?"

Her statement wasn't entirely a lie – though she could have easily fetched change from the pub, she also wanted to establish that she had no money for them to rob, if that was indeed their intention.

"Oh…" Lenna trailed off, her cheeks tinging as pink as her hair. She turned to Bartz, Galuf, and Faris, all four of them suddenly realizing the critical error that their sleep-deprived minds had all failed to take into account…

…The accident in the canal had left them with no money – and Faris had fled the ship without taking along any of her ill-gotten emergency stores.

The princess was loathe to pull the "do you know who I am?" card – particularly for an amount as paltry as 40 gil – but much to her relief, Bartz stepped in, laughing in that warm, dorky way he had that was enough to disarm most anyone.

"I'm afraid we don't have the exact amount – but if you were willing to wait until morning, we could get it for you then."

"Oh, I see," the innkeeper nodded, smiling slightly as she leaned over the counter, her arm strategically perched just so beneath her chest to give him an eyeful. Her fears set aside about their intentions – it seemed they were just regular travelers after all – now that she looked a little closer at _him_ , he was kind of cute… She ran her tongue over her lower lip in the blink of an eye to give it a sheen of gloss – she knew from hours of boredom manning the inn at night that she looked damn good in this low light. "I think that would be OK, if you were willing to wait here in the morning with me while your friends got the gil."

"No problem!" Bartz grinned, and Lenna felt an irrational jab of rage seize her stomach as she watched the innkeeper's dimple twinkle in the flickering torchlight above her. Was this woman _flirting_ with him!? And was Bartz flirting back, or just being his usual delusional self? Lenna quickly snatched the key, flashing a forced smile as she nodded toward the hall to their left. The world was in crisis, for gods' sakes – she didn't have time for such shenanigans.

"Well, is it this way then? Thank you very much, and good-night!" She practically grabbed Bartz and Faris by their hair as she dragged them away, Galuf scrambling behind them as he turned once more to enjoy the little show the innkeeper had put on – he wondered if she was into older men.

"Whoa, what's the hurry!?"

"I think Lenna is just…tired," Faris snorted. Lenna didn't deign to dignify that with a response, instead jabbing the key into the lock that matched the number imprinted on the hot-stamped leather fob. When the door swung open, they were greeted with five beds, three shoved against one wall and two against the other, the middle of the room left empty as a makeshift aisleway.

"So how exactly are we going to pay for this room?" Faris asked as she closed the door behind them, wrestling the key out of a still-steaming Lenna's grip and not-so-gently shoving her toward one of the beds on the side of the room that had two.

"There's got to be some sort of odd job we can do for someone in town tomorrow morning," Bartz explained. "I do this kind of thing all the time – it's not always camping under the stars and berry-hunting with Boko. Sometimes I do appreciate a hot meal and, you know…shelter from the elements – so I go out to earn some money."

"Good thinking!" Galuf nodded. "You really _are_ smarter than you let on."

"But what if there's not a place we can get a job?" Lenna collapsed on the edge of the bed, struggling to keep her eyes open long enough to at least get her shoes off and get herself under the covers. A foggy vision filled her mind of Bartz being forced to work for the innkeeper to pay their debt, with him leaning over the counter in a half-unbuttoned shirt to lure in unsuspecting customers. With a loud "thwack", her shoe suddenly flew off into the wall, having been kicked away with more force than was necessary.

"Well, I suppose I can always pick someone's pocket," Faris laughed, and Lenna whirled around, nodding very seriously.

"Yes, yes…that could work too!" _Anything to keep Bartz from becoming a slave to that…that woman!_

"Huh, Lenna must be really tired, if she's suddenly advocating for petty crime," Bartz smiled, shrugging off his tunic and stepping out of his boots as he claimed the bed opposite of hers. "Let's get some shuteye and we can reconvene tomorrow."

"Aye," Faris agreed, raising an eyebrow as she took her place in the bed next to Lenna's and very pointedly tossed the discarded shoe back to her. "And if any of you scurvy dogs wake me before I'm good and ready, there will be hell to pay!"

* * *

The next morning – well, very _late_ morning – Bartz was the first among the party to rise. He could hardly remember what had happened before he had closed his eyes and dropped off into a deep, mind-numbing sleep – a habit he was not excited about cultivating. Outside the thin walls of their room, he could hear the lively chatter of other patrons going about their day, and could spy through the moth-eaten, floral curtains that were stretched over the surprisingly large windows passersby that were crossing through the market district of which the inn was positioned dead-center. It had been difficult to take in Carwen's scenery the night before when their sole focus was to find a place to rest their beyond-weary heads, but now Bartz could feel the familiar flutter in his stomach that he always got when adventure was on the horizon – he had never been to this side of the continent before, and was secretly thrilled that they were going to see a bit more of it than they had originally planned. Of course, it would have been far better had they been able to safely arrive at Walse, ship intact and Syldra at the helm…but if he wasn't able to force himself to see beyond the tragedy that had assailed them so shortly into their fledgling journey, he feared he wouldn't be much help to Lenna or the crystals – or to anyone else who had suddenly come to depend on him.

The day would come for his tears to shed – but he was going to put that off for as long as he could manage to keep his spirits buoyant…for _their_ sake.

 _Heh…I get that from you, don't I, Mom?_

He spied Faris's abandoned map on the rickety nightstand perched between his bed and Galuf's, not having any idea how it had actually gotten there. Gingerly reaching out as to not crinkle the paper and disturb anyone, he swung his legs over the ledge of the bed and spread the map out in his lap, squinting to make use of what little light the embattled curtains allowed to pass from what seemed to be a beautiful, cloudless day. His eyes immediately fell to a tightly-woven cluster of trees drawn to the northwest, a carefully labeled dot in their center steps away from the Wind Shrine had there not been an all-encompassing barrier of mountains between them.

 _Lix... When you look at it on a map like this, it makes you wonder how anyone ever managed to settled there in the first place. It's so cut off from the rest of the world…I guess that's why people liked it so much. Well, Mom did, at any rate…I wonder how she convinced someone like Dad to stay there and raise a family._

He remembered from his fuzzy memories that had recently come back to him, reincarnated as dreams, that his father had served as an escort to the Crystal of Water when it was being transported to its home in Walse Tower. That meant, at some point, Dorgann would have most likely crossed through Carwen too. A road leading directly south along the village shoreline would have them in Walse in nearly no time at all. Bartz smiled slightly at the absurd notion that he could very well be following in his father's footsteps after everything Dorgann had done to seemingly ensure that would not happen. Leaving the map behind on the bed, Bartz silently unleashed a stretch that sent a tingle of energy running up his spine, jolting his brain fully awake. If he could scrounge up the gil to pay their room bill before the others woke up, it meant they could leave as soon as possible.

After getting dressed and taking one last look at the others before closing the door behind him, Bartz wandered into the inn entryway that he felt like he had only left five minutes prior. Instead of the moody woman from last night whose temperature had seemed to rev very quickly from cold to hot (what was up with that?), he found instead an older, male version of her, with the same dark hair and investigative gleam behind a pair of silver, oval spectacles. He was mumbling something under his breath – counting, it sounded like – while dragging the nib of a quill down a piece of paper.

"Good morning," Bartz smiled, raising a hand. The man looked up at him without enthusiasm, taking in the boy's harried appearance – did he even own a hairbrush? – and finally setting the quill down with a definitive "click".

"Ah, you must be with the late-night visitors my daughter briefed me about."

"How did you know?" Bartz squeaked, and the man laughed slightly – the lift in his tone gave Bartz some hope that he wasn't as peeved off as he seemed – maybe he was just grumpy about having to do math in the morning.

"Well, for starters, you're not from around here – I know our regulars as well as the back of my hand, and you ain't one of them. Second, you're just as she described – I'll spare you the colorful details."

"Heh," Bartz snorted, shyly scratching the back of his head. "I suppose we do look a little rough for wear. We were in a shipwreck in the Torna Canal on our way through, and…"

"It's OK, save your breath," the innkeeper sighed, lifting the quill again and scribbling something Bartz couldn't make out. "You don't actually have the money for the room, do you?"

"Um, well," Bartz gulped, totally taken by surprise. "…We kinda lost everything in the wreck…gil included."

"I figured as much," he replied, adjusting his glasses as he continued to write. "My daughter isn't exactly the best judge of business acumen."

"But we did fully intend to pay," Bartz added quickly, pressing his palms to the counter. The last thing he wanted to do was get arrested – it would put a major cramp in their plans to save the world's crystals if one of the light warriors was rotting away in debtor's prison. "Do you know anyone that needs help? I thought if I could pick up an odd job or two, that would raise enough gil for the room."

"Don't bother. The truth is, most of Carwen is tapped out…myself included. If you want a job, run to the docks in the harbor and fetch a delivery for me that's waiting there. I can't afford a courier, and I've got the rest of my family already picking up shifts at my brother's pub and I can't leave the inn. If you deliver everything in good condition, I'll consider the debt paid."

"Oh," Bartz blinked. That seemed easy enough. He wanted to ask what the innkeeper meant about no one in the village having money – which seemed like a bigger deal than he was making it sound like – but he also didn't want to be rude and risk the offer being revoked. He didn't have Faris's intimidating stare or Lenna's cloying charm to back up an inquiry like that – and he supposed Galuf had already laid claim on the crazy old coot angle, which left him with only the option of being the agreeable one in their crew.

"No problem. I'll be back soon." After getting directions for the slip he was to visit that would have the delivery, Bartz left the inn, making a beeline for the harbor.

Meanwhile, the remaining three light warriors were arguing about what to do next once Faris, the last to leave sleep's embrace, had been jarred awake by Galuf's yelp of surprise when he had found Bartz to be gone and Lenna's desperate hushing. Other than Bartz, it seemed she was the only one to take Faris's threat the night before about being woken up seriously.

"I'm starving, so bring something to break my fast as penance for disturbing me," Faris barked. Galuf laughed, offering up a sarcastic bow.

"Certainly, _Your Highness_. Would you like grape jam to go with your imaginary biscuits or marmalade straight from my arse? Because that's about all you can afford."

"Please, no more vulgarity, especially first thing in the morning!" Lenna cried, pounding her fist with finality against the bed. "Faris, if you want breakfast, I'm afraid you're going to have to procure it yourself. Assuming Bartz is trying get us some money, we have no way of paying for anything until he gets back. And Galuf, for the love of the gods – please don't sully my appetite with talk of desecrated marmalade ever again."

"Yes, Lenna," they both muttered. Lenna massaged her temple with her index finger, slowly shaking her head. Despite feeling more rested than she had since this whole debacle began, she was also starting to feel itchy and cranky from the lack of hygiene accoutrements she had admittedly become accustomed to from her home at the castle and from staying over at Zok's – and the shiny, luxurious innkeeper's hair bouncing over her shoulders as she had leaned in to show off her… _ugh_ …to Bartz was still firmly lodged in her craw. Treading the flooded ship in the graveyard had been more akin to swimming in garbage than a refreshing soak in a hot spring.

"I'm going to fetch a pitcher of water so I can wash my face. Promise not to kill each other while I'm gone, all right?"

Crossing the corridor, Lenna spotted a woman who looked to be around her age wearing a black shift and carrying two overflowing buckets of water, her hair tied back in pigtails. Waving her hand to flag the woman down, Lenna ran over to her, asking with a catch in her breath if she had just come from the direction of the water closet.

"Yes, it's right back there," the woman nodded, jutting her chin toward a door that was inching closed behind her a few feet away. "I was the last one in there to fetch these, so it should be unoccupied." She raised the two buckets, smiling. Lenna's gaze drifted toward them, her mouth forming a small "o" as she watched a splash of glimmering water jump out of one of the buckets and onto the freshly-scrubbed stone floor. It sparkled tantalizingly for a few moments in the beam of sunlight pouring over them from the skylight above before sinking into the pores of the limestone, leaving behind a ghostly sheen.

"Wow, the water here is really clear," Lenna murmured. Even Tycoon's water, which was known the world-over for its purity thanks to the mountain springs it was primarily harvested from, looked cloudy in comparison.

"Oh, is this your first time visiting Carwen?" the woman asked, her voice perking up with pride thanks to Lenna's observation. "The kingdom of Walse is south of here, beyond the sea. They use a machine to amplify the power of the Water Crystal – that's why the water here tastes so good and is so clean. I have to say, I've traveled a lot, and nothing else in this world beats it!"

Lenna's stomach twisted, and she suddenly felt as if the floor beneath her had warped into quicksand. _A machine…amplifying the crystal's power? Is that what has been causing this madness…? Father…is this the great evil of which you spoke?_

Before she could stop herself, she found her hands grasping the woman's shoulders, her throat clenching as her tongue stumbled over the influx of random words racing through her brain that she could only hope formed a cohesive sentence. "We must halt that machine! How can we get to Walse?"

"W-whoa!" the woman gasped, dropping the buckets in surprise and promptly soaking both hers and Lenna's shoes. She wasn't sure how much she should be telling this obviously disturbed woman, but she figured the truth was enough for now – she obviously hadn't been around long enough to comprehend the situation Carwen found themselves in at that very moment. She spoke slowly and deliberately, her brows furrowed. "Walse is across the ocean. It's a quick trip by ship, but since the wind slowed, there aren't any ships sailing – not anymore."

"W-What?" Lenna gulped. "No ships?" _So even though we've learned how to wield the Crystal of Wind, the wind itself…it's still stalled…_

"Right. And ever since the earthquake, our only other safe passage to the kingdom has been effectively cut off."

* * *

"A landslide, too, on top of the wind suddenly stalling? That's awful luck."

"It sure is."

The sailor dropped the last of the boxes at Bartz's feet, wiping his brow with the bandana tied around his wrist as he glared at the abundance of sunshine pouring over them. "Another beautiful day to be on the water, and I'm stuck here playing babysitter for a bunch of cargo no one can afford to pay for. The man who runs the inn has been giving me and the guys free board, so I don't feel bad about giving him his stuff without payment…but it's still gonna be a nightmare to work through once I can actually go back home and tell the supplier that hired us that he's not getting his money for a few more weeks."

"Everyone here from Walse is stranded and unable to return?" Bartz frowned. "The landslide was that debilitating?"

"Yep," the sailor sighed. "The earthquake came out of nowhere – according to the villagers, Carwen has never experienced anything like it in its history. The landslide it caused has completely destroyed the passage to Walse – and with the ships unable to leave port, it means we're all stuck here until the road opens back up. I can't believe it was only three days ago…it feels like years, already."

"Three days…" Bartz hoisted the package he had tied onto his shoulders like a knapsack and bent down to grab the final box. _That was when the Crystal of Wind shattered…that can't be a coincidence. First meteorites, and now earthquakes…I think the planet is trying to tell us something._

Luckily, the last set of supplies wasn't so heavy – the sailor had said the inn's largest orders were usually spices and herbs specially cultivated in Walse's famous greenhouse situated atop one of the castle towers and maintained by a company of gardeners curated with the same care the king used to select his guardsmen. "…Is there any word on when the road will be cleared again?"

"Last I heard, at least a couple weeks. The answer changes depending on which men are coming back from the worksite…but no matter what, it's never soon enough."

 _Damn…and that's exactly what I was hoping_ ** _not_** _to hear._

"I see." Bartz shifted the box higher in his arms, fixing the smile back on his face as he gave a nod. Thanks for your help. Let's hope that the next time our paths cross, this is all well behind us."

"Right, kid. Be well."

Bartz lowered his head as he made his way out of the harbor, suddenly no longer excited about the prospect of taking in all the new scenery around him now that he had realized it may be the only scenery he would be getting for a good, long while. Carwen was small, but its staggered layout thanks to the channels of water that ran through the town, sourced from the Walsian sea, made for a rather strenuous walk up and down multiple flights of stone-carved steps that would deposit you in pockets of housing or back at the village gates if you chose the wrong way. It might have been kind of romantic if you were strolling around at night with a beautiful girl on your arm, but in the peak of the morning sun, loaded down with cargo like a donkey, it was slightly less appealing.

"There you are…took you long enough!"

Bartz's head snapped up when he heard Faris's abrasive drawl echo over the din of the street traffic. She was leaning against the entrance of the inn, having transformed back to her old self with her arms crossed over her chest, and Galuf was standing next to her, trying to appear oblivious as he checked out a flock of women giggling over the ledge of a bridge, each of them tossing stale bread into the water for the gathering of gulls that had swooped in for a snack.

"Where's Lenna?" Bartz huffed, and Faris took the box from him, nodding insistently toward the packages strapped to his back too. He started to untie them, shrugging the loops of rope off his shoulders.

"I sent her to the pub to get something to eat – she got a taste of bad news and got a little upset, so I figured it was best to give her something else to occupy her time with – I'm a big proponent of comfort eating."

"You wouldn't know it to look at you," Bartz averted his gaze from her wiry build, figuring that commenting any further would get him decked square in the teeth, even with her hands full from the cargo delivery.

"It goes hand-in-hand with comfort fighting. Delivering a good thrashin' is not only a healthy workout, but a huge stress release. Doc Elroy even said as much himself."

 _Ah, and there you have it._

"Would this news have anything to do with the earthquake that has cut of Carwen from the rest of the kingdom?" Bartz asked, and Faris nodded.

"Yes. Not only that, but we found out that the Crystal of Water is hooked up to some kinda machine that amplifies its power. Lenna is concerned – for good reason, I suppose – that it's the machine that's using up the crystals' energy and causing them to shatter. With the roads blocked, we can't even send a warning to the king of Walse ahead of our arrival."

"Hrn..." Galuf grunted behind them, and Bartz jumped in surprise, figuring he had been too busy ogling the townswomen to be listening to them. "Haven't got Syldra, either, so we can't go by sea…"

Faris averted her gaze, her fingers clutching the box with far more strength than was necessary, her fingernails slicing half-moon shapes into the sides. Bartz swallowed nervously, remembering the innkeeper's request that the cargo be returned "in good condition". Luckily, Galuf suddenly realized what he muttered out loud and looked up, his face pale.

"Faris – I'm sorry."

"I'm dropping this off," Faris grunted. "You two go find Lenna, will ya?"

"T-Thanks," Bartz said quickly, yanking Galuf aside as Faris stomped away, the door to the inn rattling on its hinges behind her as she kicked it shut. "You gotta watch what you say…Faris is still holding out hope that Syldra is alive, you know."

"She is?" Galuf frowned. "Jeeze, poor kid…I really am sorry. I guess I just wasn't paying attention – my head has been in a fog all over again since the battle with Siren. I've been trying to remember anything I can about the crystals, but…all it does now is make my head feel like it's about to explode. The closer we get to the Crystal of Water, the more everything hurts."

"OK, well we'll have none of that," Bartz chided gently. "Don't push yourself too hard. We need all heads attached and un-exploded to figure out what we're going to do next – we can't just sit here and wait for the road to be cleared."

They found Lenna sitting alone in the corner of the attached pub, at the first table to the left of the northeastern entrance Bartz had led them to. He had spotted it earlier on his journey to the harbor, not realizing it had been the same pub that was attached to the inn until after he had returned. The princess was slumped over the table, her eyes glazed over as she clutched an empty mug the size of her head between two bone-white hands.

"Oh no," Bartz muttered under his breath. Sober Lenna was excitable enough as it was – he wasn't sure if he was adequately prepared to deliver a pep talk to drunk Lenna – especially before noon. He and Galuf sat down across from her, and Lenna raised her eyes, smiling crookedly as she shoved the mug away.

"Don't worry – it was just milk."

"…Ha!" Bartz laughed nervously, shaking his head. "Please, Lenna, like I would ever assume _you'd_ down a glass of ale first thing in the morning."

"The horrified look on your face when you walked in here said otherwise."

"Oh, I was just recovering from something perverted Galuf said about some poor girls outside. I'm glad you weren't around to hear it – it was so ghastly that it made my toenails curl."

"What!?" Galuf exploded. "How dare you…!"

"You guys…" Lenna giggled quietly, the sadness drowning her gaze a queer juxtaposition to the smile crowning her lips. "Sorry to make you worry. I just realized…I really know nothing about what's happening, don't I? The Crystal of Water is attached to a machine that may be expediting our crisis – we now have even less time than I could have ever imagined."

"But what about the Crystal of Wind?" Bartz frowned. "Your father watched over that crystal. It wasn't hooked up to one of these machines…was it?" He hadn't noticed anything out of place at the shrine, but he also had never actually seen a crystal before (and he supposed he still hadn't, if shattered crystals didn't count) – so he couldn't be sure if his observation meant diddly-squat.

"I…I don't know," Lenna sniffled. "That's the problem with all of this…I didn't pay enough attention when I should have. I should have shown more interest in the crystals, in what it was Father did to nurture ours – I had always just assumed that he would show me when he was ready." She lowered her chin, her fingers fluttering to her dragon wing pendant. "And now it may be too late…!"

"It's hardly too late," Bartz said quietly. "Lenna, you can't give up before we've made it to Walse. And even after that, we still need to find the Crystal of Fire and Crystal of Earth, too. I know it seems like everything is against us with the shipwreck and this sudden earthquake, but…"

"Listen to him," Galuf urged. "In just the past night, we've learned how to use the crystals' power – that means our possibilities have suddenly and drastically outnumbered our obstacles. We've just got to figure out a plan of attack – that's all."

"A plan of attack…" Lenna bit down on her lip. "Bartz, have you any ideas?"

"Not _quite_ yet…but I'm working on it."

The other entrance to the pub – the one connected to the inn – suddenly flew open, and a red-haired woman with a wild spray of freckles across her cheeks stomped inside, a pair of riding pants tucked into knee-high boots and a sable jacket flapping from her waist. Bartz, Galuf and Lenna watched with muted curiosity as she strode up to the bar where a man none of them recognized was wiping down glasses, slapping her palm down with such a racket that the dishware that had already been cleaned rattled behind the counter like a flock of tittering teenage girls exchanging secrets.

"Good morning, Marlys," the barkeep said without glancing up at her.

"I know he's here, Timothy – you're not covering for him again, are you?"

"I haven't seen your husband. I just got here!" He nodded toward Lenna's table, causing the three of them to involuntarily flinch at being outed as observers. "And you're _scaring_ the customers."

"Um…" Lenna suddenly stood up, her eyes flicking back and forth between Marlys and the barkeep even as Bartz hissed for her to sit back down. "…It's true. I mean, I'd been sitting here alone until he came in and served me. There's been no one else here at the pub until my friends arrived."

The woman seemed stunned that Lenna had dared to say anything in the barkeep's defense – her mouth fell open a few times, like her tongue was tripping over her words, but nothing came out. Finally, she shrank away from the counter, and the barkeep raised his eyes, carefully setting down the glass he had been working on.

"Maybe he got himself all nettled and he's having a sulk upstairs?"

"What's wrong?" Lenna pressed, her old, confident self slowly seeping back into her voice. Perhaps _her_ life was in shambles, but that didn't mean she couldn't help someone else. "Your husband…is he missing?"

"Missing? Hardly," Marlys snorted. "What he's missing are his marbles. He's been going around making claims to anyone that will listen that he saw a wind drake flying to North Mountain! Everyone says it is hogwash – really now, _wind drakes_? He got in a fight with someone about it last night, embarrassing me half to death, and never came home. I don't know what to do with him!"

"…A wind drake?" Bartz, Galuf and Lenna gasped in unison, and Marlys blinked, her cheeks flooding with a sea of red when she mistook their shock for disbelief at her husband's stupidity.

"Did I stutter!?"

"Did I just hear her say her husband saw a wind drake?" Faris interrupted, the same door Marlys had careened through flying open once again. She was now free of the packages she had taken off Bartz's hands.

"Oh my gods," Lenna breathed, turning toward Timothy the barkeep. "You said he might be upstairs?" Without waiting for him to reply, she rounded the corner of the bar, disappearing through a sloping threshold.

"Lenna – wait for me!" Faris exclaimed, shoving past Marlys and running after her. Bartz and Galuf offered apologetic grimaces before doing the same, managing to catch up just as Faris's hair bobbed around the corner of the upstairs corridor. What few doorways available to them were wide-open, the only exception a room at the end of the hall that Lenna was fairly sure was another water closet. She paused awkwardly, reaching up to knock on the door as Faris, Bartz and Galuf skidded to a stop behind her.

"Um – excuse me. Are you the one who saw the wind drake on North Mountain?"

There was a series of scuffles, and Lenna jumped as the door suddenly swung open. A tall, paunchy man that looked like he had not just one, but rather a _series_ of rough nights was staring down at the four of them, dark blue bags hanging under his confused eyes and a mess of chestnut hair stuffed under a bowler hat.

"Eh…? I thought I heard Marlys, so I hid in here. Who are you?"

"Please!" Lenna begged. "This is a most critical matter – the wind drake! Did you really see one?"

The man's chapped lips broke into a wide grin when he realized Lenna wasn't just another stranger ready to berate him. "Yeah, I really saw it! Up at North Mountain, flyin' around – it was a dragon, sure as I live!"

"What kind of dragon – was it tamed? What did it look like?"

"Uhh, looked dragon-like... It was wearin' some sort of armor, as I recall..." He scratched his head underneath his hat, a stomach-churning burp of which Bartz could practically see the fumes leaking from his mouth before he finished his thought. "Could've been a real, live wind drake!"

"Hiryu!" Lenna cried, turning back to the others as the man burped again. Figuring he was dismissed when Lenna's attentions diverted elsewhere, he sighed and slipped back inside the water closet, closing the door just in case his wife was on her way. Lenna clapped her hands together, practically hopping in place from one foot to the next. "Father's wind drake is on North Mountain...? It must be true…how could anyone make something up as crazy as that?"

"What!?" Faris shook her head. Unlike Lenna, she thought this laggard's commentary was shady, at best – and he was clearly still half-toasted from the evening prior. "Why would Hiryu be there?"

By this point, Lenna was practically foaming at the mouth in her excitement, Faris's skepticism flying right over her pretty little head. "Of course…oh, it all makes sense to me now! On North Mountain, there grows a plant called dragon grass. It is the only substance in the world that can heal a wind drake's wounds..." She suddenly paused, her eyes widening to twice their size. "…That means Hiryu must be hurt!"

"A wind drake, huh?" Galuf raised his eyebrows. "...Say, Bartz. Since travel by land and sea are out..."

"…We should take to the air!" he finished.

"We _could_ ride to Walse on Hiryu!" Lenna nodded. "He's big enough that we could fit with no issues – oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself…I have to find him first and make sure he's OK!"

"That's the ticket!" Galuf exclaimed. "Now, let's get moving to North Mountain!" He rubbed his palms together, his eyes jumping to each of them eagerly. "Erm…where is it, exactly?"

"To the north," the man inside the water closet chirped, not very helpfully. Faris narrowed her eyes, pounding her fist against the door.

"Unless you want us to tell your wife where your little hiding spot is, you'd better give us a bit more to go on!"

"Ack!" the man squeaked. "Sorry…what I meant to say was, there is a road north out of Carwen that runs parallel to the shore. If you follow it to the very end, you'll end up at North Mountain. There's nothin' else around there – you can't miss it."

"Very good," Faris glowered, punching the door once more for good measure before turning away. "Now stay in there and think about how you're going to apologize to your wife later."

"O-oh. Yes! I will."

"Let's hurry," Lenna whispered. "Oh, Hiryu...I'm coming. Please, please wait for me!"

* * *

On the way to the mountain, everyone's spirits couldn't help but be bolstered thanks to Lenna's infectious enthusiasm for finding Hiryu. It was becoming more apparent to Bartz that Lenna was the living barometer for their little crew's frame of mind – when she was down, the rest of them could not help but absorb some of her sorrow as well – but when she was cheerful and determined, Bartz felt as if he could take on the entirety of the world with just his own two hands. It was a feeling he had never experienced with anyone else in his life, but he found that he kind of liked the adventure of it all.

She even became open to experimenting with the crystal's powers at Faris's goading – as the base of the mountainside approached ever-closer, Bartz watched her transform with the elegant agility of a water dancer from a white mage to a thief, and then to a black mage, finally settling as a monk decked out in a royal red cheongsam trimmed in gold braids and daring slits up the sides that showed off more of her legs than she would have ever dared in her day job as Princess of Tycoon, but for now somehow felt appropriate for the level of confidence she wanted to throw the mountain's way. Her feet practically glided in snow-white silk slippers as she danced ahead of the others, her hair bouncing in twin buns tied up with yellow ribbons on each side of her head.

"I've never felt so strong before!" Lenna exclaimed, turning her back to the looming mountain so she could face the others as she strode backwards. "Is this what it feels like to be Bartz and Galuf all the time?"

"Ohohohoho, you flatter me," Galuf laughed, and Bartz could only blush, looking away. He thought monks were supposed to be stoic and peaceful, not utterly adorable.

"Please," Faris rolled her eyes. "Swordsmen are a dime a dozen. Set your sights higher, Princess."

"Ha ha, I was just kidding," Lenna winked, and Galuf nearly tripped over his own feet in disappointment. "Thanks to the crystals, I'm never going to need a bodyguard when I become queen!"

 _Which will hopefully not be for a good, long while,_ Bartz thought. Lenna didn't have to say it out loud – he knew one of the reasons why she was so anxious to find Hiryu wasn't just so that they could fly to Walse, but also because it meant King Tycoon could likely be near. He peered up the slope of the mountain, spotting the slate-strewn, winding path that they would soon be scaling and following it to a bustle of evergreens that blocked the rest of his view. The mountain itself wasn't very tall – maybe several hundred meters, at most – if they were very lucky, it was possible they could find Hiryu with some daylight hours to spare and touch down in Walse yet that evening.

The group's chatter died down considerably when they met with the mountain path, Bartz and Lenna taking point while Galuf and Faris hung back to keep an eye out for monsters. They had been so anxious to make the trek that it hadn't occurred to anyone to actually gather intel on the mountain beforehand – but happily, it seemed the location was more known for camping and meditation based on some of the evidence they encountered on their way up. There were lots of extinguished camp fires, delicate ties of paper charms and prayer beads strung along clusters of bushy pine trees, and the occasional piece of trash that Lenna would greet with a sigh, shooting back a distraught look to Faris that prompted the pirate to spear it with the tip of her sword.

"I didn't realize you were such an environmentalist," Bartz smiled, and Lenna blushed, wrapping her arms around herself. The higher they climbed, the more the mountain air bit into the sweltering summer heat, and tiny goosepimples were starting to erupt over her exposed biceps.

"It just makes me mad when people disrespect our planet. But…maybe a tiny bit of it has to do with the spirit I've summoned with the crystal? I wonder if the monk that used to be a light warrior mediated on mountains a lot? I felt rather _drawn_ to this form after I had summoned it."

"I've been wondering about the past light warriors too," Bartz sighed, peering up at the string of opaque clouds lazily drifting overhead. "Do you think the scholars that met up with us at the Wind Shrine have gleaned anything yet that may help us better understand these powers?"

"It's possible," Lenna nodded. "Please don't think less of me, but…I was already thinking about when I might return to Tycoon. There are so many questions I have that only someone there can answer…about the crystals, the infernal machines amplifying their power…and…" She trailed off, not escaping Bartz's notice when eyes guiltily flicked toward Faris and Galuf, who were now lagging a few feet behind them and delivering a beatdown to a pair of wild Cockatrices that had made the fatal mistake of attempting to turn Faris to stone.

"I wouldn't think less of you for something like that," Bartz said. "No one said we had to do this alone. If one of your advisors can offer any input, we should take it, right?"

"…Of course," Lenna nodded. "But I have other motivations, as well…some more selfish."

"What's wrong? Are you homesick?"

She hesitated a few beats before answering him, glancing back once more at the others to ensure they were still occupied. Sure enough, Galuf and Faris were paying them no mind – a third Cockatrice had joined the fray now, and though they didn't look to be in any danger, Faris was now swearing up a storm as she climbed up a neighboring tree, her knife clamped between her teeth. She had transformed back into a thief, and was about to show their uninvited guests how divebombing was _supposed_ to work. Galuf, meanwhile, was exchanging blows with a bird that was trying to tear out a chunk of his hair.

"Something odd happened in the graveyard," Lenna finally replied, turning back to him as her voice dropped an octave. "It was while we were resting on the flooded ship."

"Huh?"

"Between myself and Faris," she added. "I…oh, I feel stupid for even saying it out loud."

"W-what is it?" Bartz asked, his voice cracking. He was ashamed to admit that the first thought that jumped to his mind wasn't very flattering toward Faris, though he also had a feeling that if Faris had tried anything untoward with Lenna, she would have gotten her lights punched out – it wasn't like Lenna was a simpering maiden.

Still, Lenna did nothing to calm Bartz's crazy imagination with her silent reply. She clamped her lips together, her eyes drifting toward the necklace bouncing delicately between her clavicle. Bartz, his gaze following her own, suddenly found his feet tangling up in each other, his toes banging into something hard before the path before him flipped upside down and traded places with the sky.

"Bartz!" Lenna squeaked, pressing her hands together as he tumbled forward and collapsed face-first into the trail. "Are you all right?"

"Ugh…I think so. What the hell was that?"

Lenna kneeled down and untangled Bartz's legs from the object that had tripped him, her brows furrowed. A warm, tingly sensation shot up Bartz's hip when his rattled brain made the connection that Lenna was actually touching him – and not by accident! – but his temporary bliss popped like a soap bubble when his vision came back into focus just in time to watch the blood drain from her face, her fingers tremoring as she lifted a platinum-plated, leather wing-trimmed helmet with a crystalline visor riddled in gaping cracks.

"Father's helmet!" she croaked. "Did he…did he manage to escape from the Wind Shrine with Hiryu after all?"

"Are you sure?" Bartz pushed himself up into a half-slouch, wincing.

"There is no other man in the world with a helm like this," Lenna murmured. "Something terrible has happened…I've got to…!" Before he could catch his breath in protest, Lenna had leapt back to her feet, the helmet tucked under her arm as she bolted away, disappearing through a veil of shadow cast by the drooping trees ahead. The long-forgotten Bartz drew a deep breath just as he felt someone scoop him up from beneath his arms and lift him effortlessly, a flash of silky violet brushing his cheek.

"I turn my back for one second, and yer in another mess."

"Thanks, Faris," Bartz blushed.

"Where is Lenna?" Galuf asked, slinking up behind Faris as he casually wiped down the Cockatrice blood from his sword with a pocket square.

"She ran ahead," Bartz began, but just when he was about to explain what they had found, a piercing scream tore through the air, the three of them immediately turning toward the darkness, hearts frozen in their chests mid-beat.

"Uh…AIEEEEEE!"

The three of them took to the trail, breaking through to the clearing that was flanked by a rambling footbridge surrounded by jagged, sun-dappled crags reaching for the summit that were covered in tapering vines of bright purple, bell-shaped flowers. On the opposite side of the bridge, staggering with her back turned to the others against a sudden surge of wind, was Lenna, her hand clutching her bloodied left arm with a willow-threaded arrow jutting out at a violent ninety-degree angle. Tycoon's helmet had fallen away, forgotten, at her feet.

"Lenna!" Bartz screamed, his fingers fumbling for his crystal shard as the world around him plunged into silence. She turned groggily toward his voice, the jade of her eyes swallowed by her enlarged pupils as one of her ribbons fell from her hair, the left bun flopping into a matted tangle of pink over her shoulder. He had only realized his feet had carried him to the bridge after he felt a tremendous quake rattle the boards beneath his feet. Time slowed to a crawl as his gaze drifted away from Lenna, his scream seized in his throat as he watched the rope suspending the bridge snap apart and plummet into the boulder-laden fissure below.

"I said, _watch out_!" a voice suddenly growled in his ear, and the rest of the universe caught up with him as he felt himself get yanked back and watched the bridge collapse with only seconds to spare, Galuf's rescuing grip tightening on his arm to ensure he didn't do anything stupid. Lenna stared down, stunned, at the rise of dust and debris rising from the destroyed bridge before her eyes rolled in the back of her head, her legs giving out. As she flopped into a patch of overgrown wildflowers, the echoing clicks of stiletto heels smashing into rock rose into the air, and a towering figure materialized behind Lenna. It was a woman with a sharp lime-green bob that angled with the curve of her jutting chin, wearing a latex hunting bustier that was the same color as the flowers crawling up the mountain cliffs. Somehow, on her, the regal color took on more of an effect of a flashy warning, like the brilliant scales of a poisonous snake. Thin, teal-painted lips were pursed in a scowl that made them nearly disappear from her face, and slung over her right shoulder was a bow, while her left hand clutched a chain-link whip the snaked around her arm in an intimate manner that was damn-near vulgar. As she squatted down to take stock of Lenna's condition, Bartz could see the bulges of the woman's thigh muscles straining against her mirror-white skin, and felt the back of his neck dampen. He had a feeling that whoever this person was, she _wasn't_ coming to Lenna's aid.

"Ohohoho..." the woman chuckled, reaching for the arrow stuck in Lenna's arm and yanking it out without a second thought. "I came here after that wind drake, but seems like I've caught something even more valuable."

"Who the hell do you think you are!?" Faris bellowed, shoving Bartz and Galuf out of the way as she marched for the ledge of the cliff.

"Are we doing introductions?" the woman blinked, tossing the arrow aside and licking her lips. "Well…whatever, I have some time. I'm Magissa, a huntress."

"W-Wait..." Bartz squeaked. "A _huntress_? You'd hunt a wind drake!?"

"That's…not what my next question would have been," Galuf stage-whispered, but all Bartz could manage for a reply was shooting him an annoyed glare. He couldn't help it that it felt as if his mind had just been rewound and fast-forwarded over and over again – sometimes stupidity just came out.

Magissa smirked, waggling her finger like she was addressing a naughty child. "Of course. Their horns fetch quite a high price on the black market, ohohoho! But better than some phantom wind drake, I see I've caught no less than the princess of Tycoon!" She picked up the discarded helmet, nodding to herself like she was holding the certificate of authenticity for some obscure junk she had won at auction before turning back to Lenna's still form.

"Yes… You'll make a lovely _souvenir_ for my husband. You may not exactly be his type, but…what kind of wife would I be if I didn't encourage him to try new toys once in a while?"

"You're disgusting!" Bartz growled, his fists clenching so hard that he could feel his fingernails cutting into his skin. If so much as one of that blasted woman's stray eyelashes violated Lenna by fluttering onto her, he feared he was going to end up committing his first murder.

"Don't be like that," Magissa pouted. "See these beautiful purple flowers that climb the North Mountain's summit? I'll tell you a trade secret – I coat the tips of my arrows with just enough of their poison to render my prey numb. Little Lenna here won't feel a thing – and when my Forza is done with her, we'll make sure she's…taken care of. Mwa ha ha ha!"

"Poison?!" Galuf gasped, and Faris, who had heard quite enough, reared back angrily, her eyes flashing.

"Let her go, you addle-pated, foul-complexioned, scofflaw!"

"Faris, wait!" Bartz cried. But his pleas fell on deaf ears – Faris ran forward and took a flying leap in the air, across the chasm, throwing her crystal above her head as she evoked the guise of a white mage. The essence of ruby red flames embraced Faris's body, dissipating into swaths of hooded white silk that fluttered behind her like the adornments of a hell bride. At the apex of her leap, she stretched her fingers toward the falling crystal, chanting a Float spell with a throaty whisper that made Bartz's stomach flip-flop. The crystal shard responded in a wave of pulsing light, transforming into a pair of rainbow-tinted angel wings that fastened themselves upon Faris's back, right below the hood of her robes. Suspended in mid-air, Faris growled a warning to Magissa as she summoned an ultraviolet-plated morning star flail in her right hand, the chains clanging in the air like church bells as her wings sent her spiraling straight for the enemy.

"Cute trick," Magissa tittered. "But I know a little magic of my own."

Shoving Lenna aside, Magissa closed her eyes, raising her hands over her forehead. The whip wrapped around her arm began to unravel on its own accord, coiling itself in the air surrounding the huntress and rousing up a cyclone with cutting gales of wind that tore the flowering purple vines clean off the mountainside. Just as Faris cracked her flail, the cyclone unleashed itself upon her, colliding with the white mage mid-air and entrapping her in a squall of flower petals meadow grass-turned-razor blades. Bartz and Galuf could only watch on in horror as the wings on Faris's back were shredded into pearls of light, the blood draining from her face as she plummeted down, just barely able to grab hold of the ledge of the cliff that was inches away from Lenna's increasingly-fading face.

"Faris!" Bartz cried, rushing to the ledge where the bridge had once held. "We're coming, hold on!" He turned to Galuf, both of them nodding in agreement as they reached for their crystals.

Magissa sauntered over to Faris, licking her lips as her shadow fell over the white mage's frustrated glare. Without hesitation, Magissa crushed the stiletto heel of her boot into Faris's knuckles, watching with satisfaction as her victim's pupils shrunk to pinpricks and her mouth flew open with a silent scream. Moments later, Faris's faltering grip loosened, and she went plummeting into the chasm in a heap of fluttering robes, the morning star crashing against the jagged boulders after her. Bartz and Galuf froze in shock, their crystals clutched in sweat-drenched palms, as they watched Faris's ragdoll-like body fall away from them into the swell of darkness below. After a few moments, Magissa shrugged, fluttering her eyelashes as she turned toward the men and raised her hand, summoning the readied whip back into her grasp as another cyclone of wind began to rise behind her.

"Oops, I guess she slipped. _Pity._ Are you going to join your friend in hell, or should I help ferry you along?"

* * *

To be continued in _7: Unfurled Wings_


	7. Unfurled Wings

7: Unfurled Wings

 _Faris…!_ Bartz could feel his knees threatening to give out at any second. His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth as he struggled to choke out something – anything – but he had been rendered mute by Magissa's nonchalant cruelty. As the roar of the wind mixed with Magissa's rising laughter, Galuf cursed under his breath next to him, the old man's rage emanating like the heat of a second sun. The gleam of Galuf's crystal shone in Bartz's eyes, and in a rush of emerald light, his friend had been replaced by a staggering tower of shadow, a black mage swathed in a midnight blue cloak with taupe and gold-threaded slacks peering just below the hem, and a wide-brimmed straw hat that completely obscured his face in a veil of black, save for the patch of wiry mustache that now looked like it was floating in oblivion, faceless.

"Fire!" Galuf ordered, and a stream of spiraling flames erupted from between his outstretched hands, sailing across the chasm that divided the battleground. Magissa answered his spell with a sneer, cracking her whip in the air. The flames were effortlessly swallowed into the gale swirling around her, dissipating into nothingness.

"What the…!?" Bartz gasped. Before he could finish his thought, the readied cyclone burst forth with another crack of Magissa's whip, blasting through the air and sending the pair of light warriors flying off their feet, their bodies bouncing dangerously close to the ledge of the cliff on the opposite vista.

"Bartz!" Galuf wheezed, ducking his head as the hot wind nearly choked the very breath out of his lungs. "This woman…anything we throw at her, she's gonna hit us back with twice as hard!"

"No kidding," Bartz moaned, gritting his teeth as he blinked away the dust blinding his teary eyes. "Poor Faris…if only we had…"

"W-What!?"

An enraged shriek carried across the wind, prompting Galuf and Bartz to risk lifting their heads toward the storm. Magissa dropped her whip, stumbling back in surprise as a burst of red light exploded out of the chasm, and the spiked end of a flail flew over the edge and smashed into the ground between her feet, breaking through layers of shale and burying itself into the mountainside. A few moments later, a bruised and bloodied, but very much alive Faris followed, dangling from the handle of the flail's chain with one hand, the other grasping a knife stabbed into the face of the fissure. With a final grunt of effort, she yanked the knife out of the wall, tucking it between her teeth and hoisting herself over the cliff with the ease of a seasoned acrobat. She was back in her thief costume – Bartz realized the flash of red light must have been another miraculous transformation.

"Faris!" Galuf and Bartz burst out in unison, neither of them believing their eyes.

"Hmmph," Magissa snorted, taking a stilted step back as Faris inserted herself between the huntress and Lenna, flames shooting from her eyes as her crystal shard materialized threateningly above her open palm. "Annoying little twerps, ruining my plans… Fine! It just means I'll have to crush all four of you!"

Faris transformed back into a white mage, tossing her knife straight for Magissa's chest as she fired off an Esuna spell. A robe of gentle dewdrops draped over Lenna's body, shining with a coral hue as they dripped down the length of her body toward the wound on her arm, pooling in its center like a rain-drenched lily. As Lenna started to twitch awake, her eyelids fluttering gingerly, Magissa unleashed another wind storm, of which Faris managed to barely counter with a hasty Shell charm. As a pale green shield erected itself between the girls and Magissa's wind, the remainder of the spell blew past the chasm and raged straight for Galuf and Bartz, gathering itself into another maelstrom that would for sure be the one to finish them off.

 _Think, think!_ Bartz pleaded to himself, pressing his crystal to his chest – he could feel the shard trembling with each frenzied beat of his heart. _Black magic can't touch her – and our swords are worthless all the way over here!_ If either he or Galuf tried to join Faris, Magissa would just swat them out of the air like pesky flies – and he wasn't so confident about either of their abilities to survive the fall. _We need to find a way to turn her own power against her – if only we could wield the power of wind, too!_

Suddenly, a pulse of heat throbbed from within the crystal shard, and when Bartz glanced down, he realized it was burning with such brilliant light that it made his eyes sting.

 _Oh…oh my gods._ _ **That's it**_ _!_

"Bartz?" Galuf shook his shoulder, his voice cracking. "Have you gone comatose on me, boy? We gotta run! My shield isn't going to hold out much longer!"

In his desperation to come up with a counterattack, Bartz hadn't noticed that Galuf had taken a cue from Faris and transformed into a white mage to cast Shell magic of his own – but the spell was taking a fierce beating from the gathered strength of the wind, and cracks of flashing green were dancing above them, threatening to burst open at any moment. Shaking his head, Bartz stood up, his eyes trained on his crystal shard as he tossed it overhead in the air and summoned the remainder of his strength from the deepest recesses of his heart.

 _Crystal of Wind…heed my prayer! Bless me with the fortitude to weave the spells of my enemies with my own hands!_

A rush of tingling electricity raced along his spinal cord, igniting his nerve endings into fireworks as a warm ribbon of wind spiraled from the floating crystal, wrapping itself around his chest and ushering along with it a flux of happy, summer-drenched memories from his mornings in Lix, waking up to one of his mother's fierce hugs. He could swear he heard the hushed whispers of his dad's voice in the cries of the gleaming, amber gales enveloping his form – or were they the utterances of the souls that now occupied the crystals? Rapid-fire images were flashing behind his shuttered eyelids far too quickly for him to make any sense of – strange, contorted monsters that were lifted from his darkest nightmares, a spray of diamond-esque stars piercing the velvet dark, scalloped leaves dripping in crystalline brilliance hanging in defiant stillness in the midst of an ink-stained maelstrom.

 _What is the crystal showing me? Where is this place…?_

 _…Somehow…it all makes my heart ache…like my last shred of hope is being crushed to dust…_

The soothing caress of the wind trailing over Bartz's bare skin was replaced by the weight of leather armor strapped over his chest and linen slacks running down the length of his legs. As his eyes slid open, the crystal hanging above his hand transformed into a brooch on his newly-procured silk cape, and a silver, sapphire-studded blade materialized in his outstretched hands. Bartz grabbed hold of the sword, turning it over and blinking in surprise when he saw the reflection of his face staring up at him as clear as a mirror, a navy silk domino mask with fringed ends that resembled wings framing the blue-gray of his eyes.

 _I've done it…the crystal granted my wish to transform me into a blue mage…!_

 _Please gods…please let my plan work!_

As Magissa's cyclone crashed upon them, shattering Galuf's shield, the sapphires embedded in the blade's hilt exploded in a sea of light. Blinking away the desolate wonderland the crystal had shown him, Bartz gave in to what it was his body wanted him to do – paying no heed to Galuf's shouting, he dove blade-first into the heart of the storm, his cape whipping behind him like a knight's standard, and raised his sword high in the air. Miraculously, the gales of wind brought him no harm – instead, they eagerly swirled around the sword, disappearing into the rapidly-pulsing sapphires.

"What the hell are you doing to my magic?" Magissa shrieked, ducking just in time when Faris took advantage of the distraction in an attempt to land a hit with her flail. Lenna groaned as she dragged herself to her feet, reaching up to massage her healing arm. Her jaw dropped to the ground when she saw Bartz making short work of the cyclone, which was now nearly all absorbed.

"B-Bartz! Are you OK!?"

"Never been better!" Bartz called back between clenched teeth. The truth was, his arms were starting to get a little tired, but that didn't seem to be a line that often appeared in fairy tales when the prince came to rescue the princess (or in this case, when the adventurer played a supporting role to the admittedly much more dashing lady pirate).

"Hey, Bartz…you look really cool and all, but what's the plan?" Galuf blinked. "This wench knows that as long as we're separated, we don't stand a chance!"

"Just trust me! We're coming up on the finale!"

Magissa growled under her breath, dodging another attack from Faris as she leapt back, cracking her whip into the ground with a thunderous clap that rattled the mountainside. "I've had enough of your foolishness! Honey! Come here and _take out the trash_!"

"Honey?" Lenna gulped.

"Bring it," Faris snarled.

The entire ledge began to quake underneath the girls' feet as a giant of a man came sprinting from the vista above, a blur of shadow that emerged before them a gigas with moss-covered plates fashioned over his shoulders and kneecaps, and tanned leather shorts that left very little to the imagination. His skin had been stained the same mossy color as his armor, presumably for the purposes of camouflage, and his head was shaved bare, matching the rest of his hairless body. Standing next to Magissa, his stature was only further exaggerated – he was several heads taller than her own staggering height, and just one of his thighs was the same width as her entire frame.

"Yeesh," Galuf grimaced. "No wonder his wife has to find him girlfriends to keep him busy – I can't even imagine the size of his…"

"Could you _not_ finish that thought!?" Bartz squeaked.

"…Hands," Galuf said pointedly, raising his staff in their enemies' direction. Bartz blinked, realizing that – what had Magissa called him earlier? Forza? – was wearing a pair of oversized gauntlets that could have been hiding a wide variety of, well, hand sizes.

 _Gah – get your mind out of the gutter, Bartz – concentrate!_

Faris, dumbfounded by this new development, slunk back to shield Lenna, who was frozen in place. Every escape route that she could possibly think of was playing through her head, but none of them were leading to a successful outcome where at minimum, at least one of them would make it out alive. Forza barked out a laugh that sent the birds screaming from the nearby trees, an entire flock raising at once in a sea of black to flee. Bartz swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and stepped forward, his eyes narrowing. He had to aim carefully. If Forza got even a step too close…

"Galuf, cast Shell one last time on the girls!" Bartz commanded, not bothering to wait for a reply as he raised this sword and started to chant under his breath. It was nothing short of miraculous – words he had never heard, read or breathed before were channeling from his brain to his mouth like he had been born with them imprinted upon his very soul. A warning gust of wind tugged at his mask, and he realized he was nearly to the end of the spell. Bracing himself, he swung his sword forward to grasp it with both hands.

" _Aero!_ "

 _Let's see how you like a taste of your own medicine, Magissa!_

The same cyclone that had attacked Bartz and Galuf charged forth out of the sapphires in Bartz's sword, sweeping across the vista in a flurry of destruction. Galuf's Shell spell wrapped Faris and Lenna in its protection, rendering the aftershocks of the cyclone harmless as it raged past them and plowed straight into Forza. Not even the man's substantial bulk could keep him grounded – unprepared for the attack, he was thrown backwards into Magissa, who went flying over the cliff's edge and disappeared from sight, screaming obscenities the whole way down. Forza grunted and tried to claw his way back to Faris and Lenna, who had both readied themselves to let him have it if he came too close – but the Aero spell was unrelenting.

King Tycoon's abandoned helmet was caught up in the storm, and a loud "clang" rang out as it smashed Forza square in the face, crushing his nose with a sickening crunch and a spray of burgundy blood. The shock of the sudden pain caused him to lose his grip on the shale, and he went rolling backwards, tumbling down the mountainside after his wife. Their targets neutralized, the cyclone dissipated into nothingness, its sudden exit drenching the mountainside in an unsettling silence.

"Faris, thank you for protecting me!" Lenna gasped, throwing her arms around her and practically sobbing into her chest. Faris raised her arms embarrassedly, glancing over at Bartz and Galuf and shrugging as if to emphasize that she was in no way encouraging this behavior.

"H-Hey…" Bartz murmured, lowering his sword. "What am I, chopped liver?"

"You did good, kid," Galuf grinned, ensnaring Bartz in a bearhug and smashing his already wind-destroyed hair. It wasn't as great as a hug from Lenna, but Bartz supposed it would have to do. "It didn't hit me until it was too late what it was that you were trying to pull off. I couldn't have come up with a better idea myself!"

"That's very true, because you didn't," Bartz groaned, which earned him an even tighter (perhaps maliciously so) hug.

"Oh, Bartz!" Lenna exclaimed, as if she just remembered he was there. "You were simply amazing! That power – what was it?"

"It was blue magic," Bartz blushed, scratching the back of his head. "Something I learned about from my dad a real long time ago. It's a special kind of magic that one can only learn by having it cast upon them – a lot of blue mages are hunters by trade, and they use it to turn the tables against dangerous prey."

"Oh…that's right!" Lenna blinked. "The crystal granted us with those powers as well…and you recognized what it was that awful woman was using against us!"

"I had help," Bartz admitted, touching the crystal that had become fastened to his leather chest plate. "The crystal was shining with a brilliant light, and suddenly, the idea came to me. From that point on, it was like I had done all of this before…I hardly recognized myself."

"That's how I feel when I transform, too," Faris nodded. "Before the crystals, I couldn't do any of this stuff. Well…most of it." She nodded toward the chasm. "I've clawed my way out of worse."

"Faris…" Bartz sheathed his sword, wondering if he should be really asking the next question that was burning on his mind. The voices he had heard when he had transformed – he was positive one of them belonged to his dad, although he couldn't possibly understand why that was – and the scenery that had flashed through his mind – it sent a chill down his spine just recalling it, even though he could no longer picture what exactly it was that had sent him spiraling into despair. Faris hadn't said she had felt anything like that the first time she had transformed – neither did Galuf or Lenna.

 _No…it might have just been me… But…why?_

"What?" Faris huffed, and Bartz jumped in place, snapping out of his daydream.

"Er – just wondering if you've got anything on you that can help us cross the chasm."

As Faris dug through her thief's knapsack to see what she could come up with, Lenna wandered over to the ledge where Magissa and Forza had fallen, biting her lip. She supposed it was possible those two had survived the fall, but the longer she stared at the jagged ledges below, the less likely that possibility seemed – and she didn't much like how relieved that made her feel. Despite her poor condition after Magissa had shot her, she had still been conscious about most everything going on around her. She had recognized Magissa's name, too – it was true that she was a huntress, but she had been long-banned from entering Tycoon's territory when it was discovered that she was hunting rare and endangered creatures for profit – the kingdom's fleet of wind drakes included. The punishment had been handed down by Lenna's mother before Lenna herself was born, but it didn't surprise her in the least that Magissa had continued to stalk the Tycoon family from afar to wait for her chance for revenge, even long after all but one of their wind drakes had died out.

It seemed pointless to share this shred of shared history with the others – it was just going to remind them that no matter how she might try to conceal it, her royal bloodline would forever remain a liability in their quest. She had been thinking about it more and more ever since she had confessed to Bartz that she wanted to go home – if they _were_ ever able to return, she would have to face the onslaught of people telling her that she belonged back in the castle, and not on this wild goose chase for her father and the crystals – and what if they were right?

 _This is the third time in my short journey that someone has had to rescue me from my own failings…maybe Chancellor Louis was correct to try to stop me from advancing. Sure, I can use the crystal's power alongside the others, but…does that really mean I belong here?_

"Lenna! Stop making me so nervous and take a few steps back, would you?"

Lenna blinked and spun around, only to find Bartz standing behind her, smiling, with his hand extended. In his elegant, well-fitted blue mage attire with his wind-tousled hair, she couldn't help but liken him to a prince from an exotic land. A brief fantasy drifted through her mind of Bartz entering the grand ballroom of Tycoon Castle's annual masquerade, effortlessly gliding his way through scores of disguised countesses, dukes, and aristocrats, only to pause once he had reached her throne. He would reach for her hand, just like he was doing now, and ask for a dance.

"B-Bartz!" Lenna swallowed. _What in the world am I doing, thinking about silly diversions at a time like this?_ Behind him, she could see that Faris had fashioned a rope bridge that crossed the chasm – she had tied her end to a tree, and someone on the other side must had done the same before Bartz had crossed over. Galuf was showing off like the egoist that he was, making a production of doing somersaults while hanging from the rope, even as Faris was loudly threatening to slice off her side with the knife she was waving in her hands.

"Don't run off like that again, OK?" Bartz chided gently. "Weren't you the one who said in the graveyard that we have to stick together?"

"Were you worried about me?" Lenna suddenly burst out, not sure where in the world _that_ had come from. Bartz's eyes darkened, and he closed the short, two-step gap between them, revoking the offer for his hand and instead crossing his arms over his chest as a blush crawled over his cheeks.

"I…"

"Now you've gone and done it, old man!"

"Aieeee! Just HELP ME, already!"

Bartz and Lenna whirled around, watching as Galuf dangled helplessly, one-handed, from the rope – apparently, one of his "tricks" had gone wrong. Faris was shaking her head, enjoying watching him sweat – but Lenna's momentary retreat into her daydreams had shattered, and she couldn't bear the thought of anyone else getting hurt in this horrific place. Now, she just wanted to find Hiryu and her father, and make it to Walse as soon as possible. Reaching for her crystal, she promptly transformed into a white mage, casting Float on Galuf so that he could reach back up for the rope, all while shooting Faris a warning look.

"…Sorry," Faris muttered, though she made sure not to direct the apology toward Galuf. Bartz laughed behind his hand, wondering if anyone else could see how frantically his heart was pounding against his chest. He hadn't been exactly sure what it was he was going to tell Lenna, but what he did know was that at that particular moment, he was actually rather grateful for Galuf's foolishness.

Once the four of them had been properly reunited on solid land, they continued the journey to the summit, which was now only a short climb away. The higher they ascended, the more abundant the poisonous purple flowers overtaking the mountain became – it soon got to the point where they were spilling over into the worn path, and the party was forced to walk single-file to avoid brushing up against them. Crushed patches of torn-up and unearthed flora could be seen strewn in random directions off the path – Bartz wondered if that's where Forza had been tromping around before Magissa had summoned him into battle.

A weak cry greeted them ten minutes later, and Lenna's ears perked up, blood overtaking her cheeks as she paused in the midst of a particularly unforgiving incline.

"Did you hear that?"

"Kind of," Galuf tilted his head. "Hard to tell if it was human though, or something else…"

"It definitely wasn't human," Lenna breathed. "It sounded like…"

"…A drake," Faris finished, shoving her shaking hands into her pockets before anyone else could see. It had sounded just like Syldra in the canal when she…when she…!

"Let us hurry!" Lenna cried, taking a deep breath as she scrambled ahead. Bartz, determined not to let her out of their sights _this_ time, followed closely behind, the sweat from the effort of their climb rolling off his forehead and stinging as it dripped into his eyes. When they had finally breached the summit, they were rewarded with a devastating sight – a violet-scaled dragon was collapsed in a heap of poisonous flowers, its wings curled tightly against its slumping body and its head twisted toward the sun, glassy, faded yellow eyes unblinking as the four warriors made their appearance. Lenna pressed her hands to her mouth, stifling a sob and running to the edge of the flower bed.

"Hiryu! The gods be praised…you're really here! Do you recognize me? It's Lenna!"

Faris lowered her chin, noticing the prominent gash sliced across Hiryu's abdomen that was currently caked with dried blood and smashed flowers. "He's hurt pretty bad..."

"Hiryu..." Lenna heaved a deep, slow breath as she observed the wound for herself, forcing a weak smile and dampening the panic in her voice. Although there was no sign of her father, she could only fear for the very worst if this was the state that Hiryu had been left in after… _whatever_ it was that had attacked him. Neither hell nor highwater would have normally kept Hiryu from his master – which could only mean something too horrible for her to imagine had occurred. She lifted her stare and noticed what it was Hiryu must had been searching for before he collapsed – spread beyond his reach, half-crushed under his tail, was a sprig of blue-green blades of grass, dusted with a fine pearlescent sheen. She would know that plant anywhere. it was dragon grass – the panacea for even the most critical of dragon ailments.

 _I don't have enough mana left to cast another Float spell_ , she thought, her gaze guiltily trailing over Bartz, Galuf and Faris, who were all in similar states of depletion. _And the others…they were dragged into Magissa's crosshairs and weakened as well, all because of me._ Bartz tried to catch her stare, but she quickly averted her eyes, sucking in a deep breath. _But maybe Magissa did me a favor when she shot me after all…I just need enough time to get to Hiryu, and then…_ Her fingers brushed over the smooth pink stretch of skin where the arrow had been embedded. "…Don't worry Hiryu, I'm going to take care of you – right now!"

"What's the plan?" Bartz asked, but Lenna ignored him, plunging straight through the poisonous flowers with a defiant stride. Tiny yellow spores exploded in the air as her cream and pink-trimmed robes whipped past the blossoms, and the strange, spinning feeling she had gotten in her head when Magissa had shot her overcame her with a vengeance. She paused briefly to gather herself, blinking away the double vision that had manifested when she tried to focus on the wilting dragon grass.

 _I thought I would have more of a resistance to the poison after Magissa's handiwork…perhaps not._

"Lenna!" Faris gaped. "What the…Where're you going!?" Lenna heard the crunch of Faris's footsteps behind her and pivoted on her heel, holding out her palm as her knees knocked together beneath her robes.

"Don't come any closer! I will be fine. Just...must reach the dragon grass..." She smiled weakly, touching the crystal shard she had tucked away in a hidden breast pocket. "This…is nothing compared to the suffering you just endured for me."

"It doesn't work like that, idiot!" Faris glared. But when Bartz pushed past her to chase after Lenna, she promptly shoved her arm into his chest, shaking her head. Galuf blew his hair out of his face, sighing. He didn't like any of it, but he knew better than to intervene, lest he end up facing Faris's wrath as well.

"Of all the women in the world, the crystals chose two of the most thick-headed."

Lenna stumbled toward the dragon grass, biting down on her lower lip to temper the flames climbing up her lungs as she bent over and snatched it between her shaking fingers, the delicate white roots easily coming free from the dusty soil. She pressed the grass to her mouth, inhaling its cooling, mint scent in an attempt to push away the fire that had taken residence in her veins. As she drifted back to the others, she realized the feeling in her limbs had completely drained away, and that she no longer knew if she was actually walking or not. Bartz, Faris and Galuf's concerned faces filled her quickly-darkening vision as she thrust out the fist clutching their prize.

"Give the dragon grass to Hiryu...quickly..."

Faris grabbed hold of the dragon grass just as Lenna's eyes slammed shut, a low gasp escaping her throat. Bartz quickly summoned an Aero spell, the gust of wind catching Lenna's body as it started to fall backwards and lifting her high above the blossoms.

"Come on, Hiryu…" Faris muttered, prying open the dragon's jaw and force-feeding the dragon grass with nary a shred of fear for any one of those razor blade-like teeth coming down and amputating her hand. The wind magic carried Lenna over to Bartz with a flick of his wrist, gingerly depositing Lenna into his arms before blowing away. Her cheek lolled against his arm while he searched her for signs of life, a glimmer of a tear catching at the corner of her eye as she moaned out.

"Please, Hiryu…get well..."

An ecstatic cry suddenly erupted over Bartz, his hair blowing back from his face as he glanced up and came face-to-face with a very-alert Hiryu, who had climbed to his feet and had thrust his head over to see what Bartz was doing with his princess, his wings jutting out defiantly. Faris had fallen backwards on her rear in surprise, her jaw on the ground from Hiryu's sudden and miraculous recovery.

"Whoa!" Bartz gasped, Hiryu thrusting his head between the two of them and snorting as he pushed his maw to Lenna's chest, the crystal beneath her robes glowing brighter with each labored beat of her heart. A soothing wave of calm overcame Lenna's dizzied senses, and a few seconds later, her eyes popped open, bright and sparkling like she had just come off a glorious night's sleep. A blush crept up her cheeks as she took in Bartz clinging to her, and she quickly turned toward Hiryu, reaching up to stroke his snout tenderly.

"Hiryu…thank you!"

Galuf shook his head, stomping over to them. "My stars and garters! You're out of your gourd, young lady – that was insanely reckless!"

"I'm sorry," Lenna murmured, although she didn't sound like she meant it very much. "I knew that if I could revive Hiryu, that he would heal me in return. He's family to me… You understand why I couldn't ask you to step in, right? I thought being exposed to Magissa's poison would have given me a little more time…"

"Lenna…" Faris peeled herself from off the ground, and Lenna visibly cringed, preparing for a barbed-tongue lecture to explode out of her – after all, hadn't she just revealed herself to be a horrible hypocrite after stopping Faris from diving after Syldra in the canal? But instead, Faris merely brushed off her clothes, reaching up to adjust her hair tie. "…Yeah, I get it. Just maybe tell us next time you're cooking up something dangerous, OK? I knew that drakes can heal a lot of human ills, but these two morons didn't."

"M-Morons!?" Bartz gasped. "Come on, that's a little _strong_!"

"I didn't plan on just storming in!" Lenna huffed. "It just happened! I saw him so sick, and I panicked…"

"Sure," Faris yawned, already over their latest drama. What was coming next?

"Rawwwr…" Hiryu snorted, dragging an onyx, scaly tongue up the side of Lenna's cheek. She squealed and batted him away, laughing.

"Looks like you're both hale and hearty again!" Galuf smiled. "Let's saddle up!"

Lenna looked up at Bartz shyly, wondering when he was going to put her down. But Bartz was paying no attention at all, and was instead staring at Galuf, wondering what he had meant by "saddle up". He glanced over at Hiryu, who was shooting Bartz a dirty look – or at least as much as one a dragon could convey.

And that was when it hit him. He was going to have to climb on top of Hiryu…

…Flying so high that the village of Carwen was going to look like an ink smudge on a map…

…And _somehow_ manage not to get himself killed.

 _Great._

In his shock, he promptly released Lenna, who went crashing to the ground with a surprised scream. Hiryu grabbed the hood of her robes in his maw and hauled her to her feet as she reached back to discreetly rub her sore behind.

"Yeeeesh! Bartz, what in the world…?"

He could feel his face exploding in shame as a fresh sheen of sweat broke out all over the entirety of his body. "...Actually, I, uh, I didn't really think this through – taking Hiryu to Walse. You see, I, uh, don't really like heights..."

Lenna, Faris and Galuf suddenly burst into riotous laughter, and Bartz shrunk back, resting his hands on his hips.

"What's so funny!?"

"Your face, kiddo!" Galuf snorted. "Anyway, get on! I'm sure Lenna will take the wheel, eh? All you have to do is sit there and look pretty."

"All will be fine," Lenna offered, stifling another snicker. "I'm a brilliant pilot. You'll never have a smoother ride in your life than on Hiryu!"

"I don't know…" Bartz blanched, the thought of Hiryu's scaly backside being the only thing between him and an untimely meeting with the gods bubbling up into a threatening wave of nausea in his stomach. Faris slithered up behind him, snaking one arm around his chest as she leaned in and whispered in his ear.

"Don't worry, great adventurer. The next time you open your eyes, you'll be safe and sound in Walse."

"Huh?" Bartz gasped. But a fraction of a second later, Faris's fist slammed into his solar plexus, and before the pain could register with his tingling nerves, the world around him had become steeped in black.

* * *

 _Hmmm…something warm is pressing against my mouth…_

 _It almost feels like…a kiss… Princess Lenna, is that you?_

Bartz's lips twisted into a sleepy smile, and a blurry chorus of giggles arose from around him.

 _Wait…what does a kiss feel like, anyway? This is a little dry…and…scaly!?_

A peaceful image of Lenna standing before him, her eyes blinking up at him innocently and glossy lips pursed, suddenly materialized into a blur of red hair and gray, cracked stretches of skin pulsating over him. A loud snort erupted, and when Bartz's eyes flew open, he found himself staring straight up the twin, darkened nostrils of a bulky beast, whose snout was quivering with thin trails of mucous as it explored his face and neck, two protruding ivory tusks just barely pricking his chest through his tunic.

"Ah….WAHHHHHH!"

The beast drew back, startled, and let out a matching, guttural shriek as a flop of stringy, mud-caked hair flopped over its eyes. Bartz shot up in place, his legs kicking frantically to propel him backwards when he suddenly found himself slamming into a pair of familiar knee-high leather boots.

"Whoa there, matey! You're OK. Someone was just trying to make friends with ya!"

"F-Faris…!" Bartz gasped, sinking into her legs against his better judgment as his cognitive functions raced to catch up with his pounding heart. As the world around him came back into focus, he realized he was sitting in the middle of a peaceful, emerald meadow, silky-soft tallgrasses brushing against his elbows and sprigs of white and purple-petaled wildflowers holding court all around him. Once the blood had returned to his face, Faris gave him a fierce knee between his shoulder blades, prompting him to get off of her – _right now_. As he climbed to his feet, a little girl with chestnut pigtails and a prim pink smock pulled over a white dress crept out from behind the monster, her eyes narrowed a she jutted an accusing finger at Bartz.

"You scared Garula! You're the worst!"

"Garula?" Bartz blinked, turning back to his hulking alarm clock. The monster focused two sleepy, amber eyes on Bartz, suddenly unleashing a yawn that washed over him with a ghastly combination of moist warmth and whatever decaying plant life it had had for lunch. With a stamp of its three-toed clodhopper feet, it began the ridiculously slow effort of turning itself around, giving Bartz a dismissive kiss-off with a shake of its mangey, fire-red mane that ran down the length of its back. The little girl shook her head, patting Garula comfortingly on his haunches.

"Garula is shy – you can't tease him so!"

"Didn't seem shy to me," Bartz muttered, trailing his fingers over his violated face.

"Oh, Bartz! You're awake!"

Lenna's voice drifted into the meadow like a song, and Bartz spotted her and Galuf tromping across the meadow, each of them holding a pair of gourd canteens. Everyone, himself included, had been transformed back to their normal selves, though the wear of their previous battle had not been spirited away along with their fancy clothes. Lenna handed one of the canteens to Bartz, and when he brought it to his lips, he was ecstatic to find that it contained some of the coldest, clearest water he had ever had the pleasure of consuming in his entire life. Galuf gave his other canteen to Faris, who made as conscious an effort as possible not to brush her fingers over his when he took it, lest she catch a case of his perversion.

"Thanks for letting us stay with Garula in your meadow," Galuf said to the little girl, ignoring Faris's slight. "Hiryu seems to really like it here."

"Garula and I have never seen a wind drake before!" the girl gushed. "He's so amazing!" She glanced to their left, where Bartz realized Hiryu's bulk had taken residence in a spill of tumbling dandelions and thistles and was snoring happily, fast asleep.

"Where are we?" Bartz mumbled between swigs.

"The township of Walse," Lenna explained. "This meadow was the safest place we could land without causing too much of a distraction. The castle is right beyond there." She pointed behind her, and sure enough, Bartz could see the rises of picturesque ivory towers climbing the cloud-streaked sky. "Galuf and I did some investigating while we were looking for water – the king should be here, and nothing seems amiss with the crystal – yet."

"That's great news," Bartz nodded. "So, when do we make our case to the king about turning off the amplifying machine?"

"You can't just barge in on the king," the girl snorted. "He's a very busy man, you know. Who do you think you are?"

"I should be asking the same of you!" Bartz huffed, not exactly happy about being smacked down by Garula's underling.

"The girl is called Tina," Faris said. "And…she's right. We can't incite a riot about the crystal. We have to go about this tactfully."

"But he'll listen to you as the Princess of Tycoon, won't he?" Bartz protested, turning back to Lenna. "Walse and Tycoon are allies, after all."

"Yes, they are…and I certainly hope he will listen to me," Lenna sighed, closing her eyes. "I've never done something like this without Father before…I must summon all of his courage and strength, and use it for my own. We need to make this look as official a meeting as possible, or King Walse may not take us seriously at all."

"You look like scavengers," Tina said dryly. "No one with half a brain is gonna let you see the king."

 _Yeesh, she's pretty on-point for someone who hangs out with stinky monsters all day,_ Bartz thought. _But she could have been a little nicer about it._

"Well, that's easy enough to fix!" Galuf exclaimed, brandishing his crystal. "The three of us will transform into knights and act as Lenna's guard. Lenna, all you need to do is wash that face of yours and run a comb through your hair."

"Finally, a decent idea from that rotting brain of yours," Faris grinned. "I like it. Tina, do you have anything at your house that can help pretty Lenna up a bit? She needs all the help she can get."

"H-Hey!" Lenna gasped. "I don't look that bad…do I?"

The group's sudden silence was enough of an answer – Lenna chewed her lip as she snatched her gourd and started pouring water over her face, furiously scrubbing with a handkerchief she yanked from her pocket.

"I have a brush and a mirror at my vanity," Tina offered. "I'll be right back." As she bolted away from the meadow toward the village, Garula wandered away on his own in another direction, disappearing in the thin swell of woods that Bartz could make out just beyond a sloping hill. He supposed based on the angry gnawing sensation in his own stomach that it was time for Garula to find dinner – or whatever it was monsters like that did at the cusp of the evening sun. While Tina was gone, Bartz, Galuf and Faris used their crystals to transform into knights, the men emerging from the crystals' light in crimson plates of armor with platinum-blue headbands that framed their faces. Faris was flanked in sapphire armor instead, with a brooch drenched in the cerulean of the ocean itself pinned at her waist. Her endless legs were encased in ivory leggings and a more decadent version of the men's headband crowning her head, with delicate winged spikes emerging from her temples that painfully reminded Lenna of the wings on her father's now-lost helmet. She swallowed the bundle of needles that had taken residence in her throat and took in each knight with a tinge of longing nostalgia, her lips parting mid-thought.

"…Very good – you all look remarkably like Tycoon's knights. Faris will be our captain."

When Tina came back with her supplies, she offered to help Lenna wash her hair since the rest of their group was otherwise occupied with trying to figure out how to become accustomed to their weighty new digs. After pouring the rest of their water over Lenna's head and Tina's work with brushing away the accumulated dirt and using her fingers to force some curls, Lenna returned to them a semi-new woman, her ivory complexion slightly brighter thanks to the scrubbing work of her handkerchief and the loose, but still elegant, bundle of curls Tina had formed that were rapidly drying in the light of the sinking sun. As a finishing touch, Faris removed the cerulean brooch from her armor and slid it in a gentle sweep of hair along Lenna's left temple, the pinned hair pulled back just far enough to reveal the exquisite, regal curve of her porcelain jawline.

"And now, we have a princess once again," Faris declared, and everyone nodded in appreciative silence, Tina included.

After Tina saw them off, the light warriors took to the cobblestoned, and only slightly over-grown road that would take them straight to the castle, Lenna positioned in the center of their formation led by Faris and flanked by Bartz and Galuf. The villagers that crossed their path either excitedly waved – for it was evident from their little show of a caravan that _someone_ important had decided to grace them with their presence – or hunched in to whisper to one another, wondering what was going on.

"Maybe Tycoon has sent assistance to help with the landslide from that awful earthquake up north!" one woman suggested.

"But who is that in the middle?" another asked. "A dignitary?"

"I heard the wind came to a complete stop," a villager murmured. "Think Tycoon had anything to do with it?"

When they reached the castle gates, Lenna calmly and silently placed her hand on Faris's forearm to indicate that she wanted to step forward. When Faris stepped aside, the two guards at the gate's expressions lifted slightly, and Lenna pressed her hands together, slightly bowing her chin.

"Good evening. I'm Princess Lenna Charlotte Tycoon. These are my men, who have escorted me for the duration of our expedition north."

"Good evening, your highness," one of the guards replied, though both of them bowed. "Have you had a hard go of it with the wind suddenly stalling?"

"My wind drake saw to it that our journey was made with ease," Lenna smiled, the lie rolling off her tongue so easily that for a moment, Bartz was convinced that none of their hellish adventures had actually occurred. "He's sleeping it off in the meadows to the east – we did not want to disturb His Majesty, King Walse."

"Nonsense," the other guard chuckled. "The king would give his right hand to make company with a wind drake as fine as your family's. Was he expecting you?"

"I'm afraid not," Lenna replied carefully, her tone taking on just the right tinge of urgency to otherwise not incite any panic. "But I come with critical news – I was hoping he would spare a moment to meet with me before we continued on our way."

"We would be remiss to ever turn away a member of your house, your highness," the second guard nodded, and they both stepped away, pulling open their respective sides of the gate with them. "If you would please proceed directly to His Majesty's throne, he should still be holding court prior to the evening's dinner."

"Thank you," Lenna smiled, nodding her head once more to indicate Faris should take her place back at the head of their line. As they shuffled through the gates and Lenna guided Faris through the castle, Bartz fell back a few steps, shaking his head in awe as he turned to Galuf.

"She seemed like an entirely different woman out there."

"I know," Galuf replied, his mustache twitching in amusement. "The girl doesn't need a crystal – she holds the power to transform under her own volition. Tycoon is going to be a very lucky kingdom someday when she inherits the throne."

"Yeah…" Bartz trailed off, his eyes locked on the gleam of the grand hall candlelight that danced in Lenna's hairpin, the rest of the castle and its curious onlookers falling away from his sights. _That's right…the Lenna I think I know…she's not entirely a reality, is she?_

After reaching another pair of guarded, gilded double-doors, the guards nodded, granting access to Lenna and the others. They were greeted by a beautifully woven blue and gold-threaded carpet that was draped over the length of the chamber to the throne, inlaid ivory pools of water surrounding each wall and packed with pearlescent white and gold koi swimming about, the surfaces crowned with floating pink lotus. A delicate trickle of water was running into each pool from a silver spout in the ceiling – each spout was so shiny that Bartz could make out his distorted reflection in each one effortlessly. The throne itself – a polished iron behemoth with sewn-in navy upholstery that looked as fluffy as a cloud to sit on – was occupied by a somewhat squat man with long orange hair that reached his waist and a matching beard, a crooked yellow gold crown upon his nest of curly bangs. Rising in jade robes the same color as Lenna's stare, he broke out into an unabashed grin, extending his hand toward Lenna's eagerly.

"Princess Lenna! This is certainly a pleasant surprise!"

"King Walse," Lenna replied, slipping her hand into his and allowing him to kiss her fingertips as she sank into a curtsy. "You look well."

"As well as one can be with such a beauty at his doorstep!" Walse chortled, his bushy eyebrows raising on his forehead as he glanced over Lenna's shoulder and investigated the three figures that had entered with her. "Just you, my dear? Where's that king of yours?"

Lenna closed her eyes, briefly toying with the idea of telling Walse the truth – but she quickly came to the realization that more information than what was needed at this point may actually backfire on her. If news spread that Tycoon had been left vulnerable without a king, she would be inviting more trouble onto her kingdom's doorstep than she was prepared to deal with on her own.

 _Just tell him, Lenna – this is what you came all this way – and sacrificed poor Syldra – to do!_ "I come with a request in my father's stead." She drew a deep breath, locking her gaze back onto the king's. "Please, stop amplifying the power of the water crystal with your machinery, _immediately_!"

The chamber sank into an uncomfortable silence, even the streaming water pouring into the pools seemingly coming to a sudden halt. Walse's face took on a funny half-sneer as he gently released Lenna's hand, which fell limply to her side.

"Ho ho ho... You must be joking." His mustache lifted slightly as a forced smile fastened itself onto his face. "I could _never_ do that! My people live comfortably thanks to the crystal's power. Everything you see in this castle – nay, this village – is birthed by the bounty of the Crystal of Water. You should understand, my dear – Tycoon benefits the same from the Crystal of Wind."

 _He's baiting me_ , Lenna thought. _He's heard the rumors of the crystal's demise._ _Fine – I'll get to the heart of the matter._

"King Walse," she drew in a sharp breath. "If left as it is, the crystal will _shatter_!"

The king crossed his arms over his chest, not seemingly at all disturbed by what Lenna had to say, which, needless to say, did rather disturb Bartz and everyone else. "Hmm... I have heard about the incident with the wind crystal...so then, it is true."

"Yes," Lenna nodded. "And with it, the wind has stopped in its entirety. It will only be a matter of time before…"

"However," Walse interrupted firmly, his eyes flashing. "No evidence proves that the same thing will happen to the water crystal. Furthermore, I am certain that the people would be opposed to ceasing the crystal's amplification. If I were to turn off the machines, it would cause a riot, and people would be out for my head. They're already shaken by the quake up north, you understand?"

"I…" Lenna could feel her spirits wilting, despite the rage that was boiling in her core – her diplomatic senses and her rabid desperation were now at war with each other. What could she possibly say to make him understand that this was beyond a mere riot – that this was something that would upend their world itself?

 _Father said the other crystals were in danger of meeting the same fate as ours…! He has to be telling the truth…why won't anyone believe me?_

Bartz snorted angrily under his breath, shoving past the seething Faris and stepping between the shrinking Lenna and King Walse. He had had enough of Lenna torturing herself to last himself a lifetime – and _he_ had nothing at stake if he volunteered to be the team lightning rod for Walse's wrath. Lenna had Tycoon's future, Faris had her men, and Galuf…well, he was fighting for _something_ , even if he didn't understand what that was yet.

"Look," Bartz snapped. "We don't have time to be arguing over this...You need to halt the machine _right now,_ or else…"

Suddenly, a violent tremor rocked the throne room, causing the water to splash erratically out of the pools as a sinking darkness swept across the sparkling-clear windows to their north. Lenna gasped, grabbing onto Bartz before she fell as Faris and Galuf clung to each other. Walse stumbled forward, his crown bouncing off his head and rolling across the trembling floor before plopping unceremoniously into one of the pools.

"Holy moly!" Bartz yelped. "What's going on!?"

The shadow that had dragged itself across the windows disappeared, sunlight spilling back inside once again. The doors slammed open behind them as a soldier burst in, holding onto the frame of the door for leverage until the vibrations finally died away, leaving the chamber in a half-soaked state.

"Emergency, Your Majesty! A meteorite fell near the Tower of Walse!"

"What!?" Walse and the others shrieked in unison. Totally forgetting about Bartz's veiled threat, Walse and the soldier raced for the windows, the soldier pulling out a collapsible scope that he hurriedly unfurled and handed to the king. After a few painfully silent moments, the king shook his head, shoving the scope back into the soldier's hand and began issuing a string of orders.

"There is no time to lose. Assemble the guard! Close the roads leading north so that none of the villagers try to investigate on their own and get hurt! To the tower _at once_!"

"Yes, sire!" the soldier ran off, shouting out orders of his own as soon as he crossed the threshold back into the hall. Walse swept past Lenna, glancing at her over his shoulder. Whatever anger he had held in regard to her request had dissipated, and he had seemingly reverted back to a more-tired version of his old self.

"Pardon this interruption... I believe you understand the severity of the situation. We'll continue this later." Before Lenna could reply, he exited the throne room, cupping his hands over his mouth. "MOVE OUT!"

Lenna blinked, stunned, as the throne room doors fell shut behind him. Galuf sprinted to the rear of the chamber, peering through the glare of the dying sunlight and shaking his head. "A meteorite…here in Walse, just like the one that fell in Tycoon? It's too much of a coincidence, don't you think?"

"Verily," Faris sighed, tapping her armored foot impatiently into the sopping carpet. "What brought about the meteorite there, Lenna?"

"I don't know," Lenna murmured. "Galuf and I just happened to be in its path when it fell."

"What!?" Faris shrieked. "How the hell did you escape that?"

"We got lucky when Bartz saved us both," Lenna frowned. "But other than the meteorite itself, there was nothing unusual about it, was there, Bartz?"

"Not that I can recall," Bartz scratched his head. "Although I was kind of occupied with you two at the time." That felt like a lifetime ago, even though it had only been a few days.

Galuf turned away from the window, his brow furrowing. It was impossible to see the meteorite from where they were, but he had managed to catch a glimpse of the Walse Tower. The tower itself sat on a peninsula, and if the meteorite had truly landed nearby, there wasn't much room for it to crash. What if it had hit the tower itself? Was the crystal in even greater danger than they had imagined?

A sinking feeling had overtaken his stomach, one that he knew he had felt sometime recently – he just could no longer bring himself to remember when that had been. Images of the meteorite careening down in the meadowlands just outside of Tycoon relentlessly assaulted his brain, but yet he couldn't place himself anywhere in the memories – he couldn't remember where he had been when the meteorite had crashed, what he had been doing, or what he had been thinking.

 _I've got to see this new meteorite for myself_ , he thought. _Maybe when I do, something will be triggered…!_

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Bartz's voice sent Galuf careening from his trance. "We're going to follow the king, right?"

"We've no choice," Faris agreed. "Lenna, is Hiryu up for another flight?" Even though he had done well in getting them to Walse, it hadn't surprised anyone when the poor dragon had almost immediately passed out upon dropping them off in the meadow – the dragon grass had neutralized Hiryu's wounds, but he still needed copious amounts of rest, most of all.

"It's not far," Lenna nodded. "He'll get us there in one piece."

The four of them fled the castle, which was in too much of a chaotic state to pay them much attention. Once outside, Bartz could make out a flurry of activity in a collection of stables on the northern castle grounds – that was surely where King Walse had gathered his troops and had made their escape to the tower via chocobo. It wouldn't take them long to reach the northern peninsula if their birds were as fast as Boko – they had to quickly catch up with Hiryu, and reach the machinery in the tower while the soldiers were distracted by the meteorite.

Both Tina and the Garula were still missing from the meadow once they had made their way through the village back to Hiryu – Bartz assumed that she had gone in for the night, and that Garula was still out grazing. After luring Hiryu awake with promises of a delicious dinner on the northern shores, Lenna managed to shake the dragon loose from his dream state and gestured for everyone to climb on. Faris shot Bartz a look, who quickly took a step back and laid a protective arm across his armored chest.

"K-Knockout gas isn't necessary this time, Captain. I'll be OK."

Which was totally a lie, but Bartz was not about to be dropped into the flurry of the tower half-unconscious.

After everyone had mounted Hiryu, with Bartz sandwiched between Faris and Galuf, Lenna unleashed a short whistle, prompting Hiryu to start beating his wings and lifting from the ground. Bartz clenched his eyes shut, clinging to Faris's waist perhaps a bit tighter than he would have liked to admit, and felt his stomach somersault as Hiryu made one last push with his hind legs, launching them from the ground into the air.

"Gah…!" Bartz grimaced, pressing his forehead between Faris's shoulder blades. "Tell me when it's over!"

Galuf leaned forward, gently resting his hand on Bartz's shoulder, and whispered with a surprising tenderness that reminded Bartz so much of his father interacting with Stella that it made his heart twist. "Just try opening one eye first. Yeah…there you go. Take a peek over Faris's shoulder – isn't it amazing down there?"

Bartz swallowed and lifted his head, barely enough so that he could see what was going on. Lenna's hair was whipping back in the wind Hiryu was creating with his majestic wingspan, the delicate, opalescent veins crossing the dragon's webbing catching in the setting sun and igniting in ribbons of rainbows. Faris had shoved all of her hair over her opposite shoulder, and as a result, Bartz could see the spread of emerald green and sparkling blue flying by beneath them, a tightly-woven quilt of beauty that was teeming with the life of the planet.

"…Huh," Bartz swallowed, cracking his other eye open to take a better look. "It's…it's not so bad."

"It doesn't feel like we're flying, right?" Galuf smiled. "I could do this all day."

"Let's…not go that far," Bartz murmured, though his grip did slightly loosen on Faris. He let the blurry mesh of land and sea hypnotize him into a temporary state of serenity, and was relieved to realize that by the time Lenna ordered Hiryu to descend for their landing, he didn't want to throw up everything he had ever eaten anymore. To the east, he spotted the trail of debris and scarred land that had become the meteorite's impact site – it was hard to tell from the air, but he figured it was about as large as the Tycoon meteorite – trails of smoke were still venting from gaping cracks in the pockmarked surface of the rock. A smattering of soldiers on chocobos were surveying the area, with many more posted on the intersection that a pedestrian would have needed to cross to reach the tower.

And to the west, with only a few hundred yards of clearance before it would have been demolished by the meteorite, was the aquamarine glass-plated Walse Tower, at the top of which resided the Crystal of Water, and the bevy of mechanical overlords that were potentially draining the last of its life.

"Can we fly in from overhead?" Faris asked, and Lenna shook her head.

"I don't see a safe place for Hiryu to land or for us to drop in. Let's see what's going on at the entrance, first."

But the closer they got, the direr the situation seemed to be. Two guards, presumably tower lookouts since they did not have chocobos, were collapsed on the ground in front of their post, bloodied and hastily propped up against the wide-open tower doors. Hiryu made a landing a few feet away, neither of the guards stirring even as the four of them jumped to the ground and came barreling over.

"What happened here!?" Lenna gasped, rushing to the first guard and pressing her fingertips to his neck. She felt the faint fluttering of a pulse, and the guard lifted his chin to stare at her, unbothered by the stranger who had suddenly appeared before him.

"Garula suddenly went berserk and stormed into the tower...we didn't stand a chance. The king went after it...some unknown knight went in, too...he wasn't one of ours."

"Garula?" Lenna choked. "Wasn't that the monster Tina was keeping as a pet?"

Bartz approached the second guard, who had managed to turn himself to face Lenna under his own power. "It took us by surprise... There has never been a Garula in our history on this peninsula that has tried to attack anyone before..."

Lenna clutched her crystal to her chest and transformed into a white mage, using the little mana she had recouped in her respite from battle Hiryu's flight had provided to cast a Cure spell on the two men. It wasn't going to do much other than possibly allow them to walk away, but it was the best she could do for the time being. Galuf stepped into the wide-open threshold, crossing his arms.

"You said the king is inside, right?"

"No one has come or gone since he and the stranger chased after Garula…I think it was heading for the crystal…"

Bartz, Galuf, Faris and Lenna turned to each other, nodding silently. The entryway of the tower was streamlined in its design, with nothing more than a spiral ivory staircase twisting upward from its center to greet them, the next level above obscured by frosted glass floors. Echoing in the distance, Bartz could make out the sound of running water – but this chamber was dry as a bone.

"We climb until we find the crystal," Lenna ordered, and the other three agreed by falling into step behind her on the staircase. On the next floor, it was evident Garula had made its way – or rather, stomped through – floor tiles had been cracked and shattered in the loose shape of Garula's elephant-like feet, in sets of four that haphazardly crossed the room before finally making their way to the next staircase.

"I don't understand," Bartz muttered as they raced up the next set of stairs. "Garula's tracks are all over the place – like it was frightened and confused. How would it know how to get to the crystal?"

"This is all insanity," Faris grunted, rounding the corner to take them into the next chamber. It was more of the same as before – signs that Garula had wreaked havoc, even smashing into a few walls this time – but no human or monster life. "The king ran in here alone? Madness!"

"The guards said a mysterious knight was with him," Galuf frowned. "But there are no other kingdoms around here, right?"

The higher they climbed, the more insistently the sound of rushing water overtook their senses, and the damper and richer the air became with purifying mist that left crystalline dew drops on the surface of Bartz's skin, mixing with his sweat from climbing endless stairs.

 _If the crystal was in danger, water still wouldn't be permeating the air like this…right? It means we're not too late?_

As Lenna and Faris crossed onto the ninth floor, a piercing scream erupted into the air, prompting Bartz and Galuf to pump their legs harder on the last stretch of stairs. When they stumbled forward, their desperate gasps for oxygen robbing the sight from their eyes in pulsing black spots, they found Lenna and Faris kneeling over a crumpled King Walse, who was lying face-down on the floor and surrounded by an unsettling amount of blood – undoubtedly all his own. Twin gouges left in the wall behind him were their only clue about what might have been behind the attack. Lenna cast another Cure spell, and the king's eyes fluttered open, though one of them was swollen pink and remained half-shut.

"Princess Lenna…you came."

"What happened here!?" Lenna gasped.

The king could only groan in place of shaking his head. "Garula's upstairs... Please...save the crystal..."

"Oh gods," she murmured, closing her eyes. "I'm so sorry…" Faris, who wasn't about to throw anyone a pity party, especially the king that wouldn't listen to them in the first place, effortlessly scooped Lenna up by the arm and hauled her back to her feet, practically dragging her up the next flight of stairs. Bartz and Galuf chased after them, and the foursome found themselves spilling into an open-air chamber surrounded by glimmering waterfalls sourced by gold-plated aqueducts that ran the length of the wall-to-ceiling frescos that enveloped them. Dancing pools of water, filled with ropey, thick, rich-green vines and blossoming hyacinths, were bubbling with life. And in the center of it all, cradled by a dais blanketed in the endless green, was the Crystal of Water, floating high above and overflowing with piercing cerulean light.

"The crystal!" Lenna exclaimed. "It's still here!"

"They're controlling you, aren't they? Well, I won't let you destroy the crystal!"

"Huh?" Bartz blinked. They turned toward the strange voice, spotting a knight dressed in orange armor and headgear that dazzled like the sun that was backed up against the dais, a slender, crimson rapier clutched in his left hand. Garula was stalking him from the western pool the knight must had previously forced it into, shaking its soaking wet mane angrily as fissures exploded from the floor tiles that were unfortunate enough to be in its path. Without warning, the Garula suddenly charged forward, thrusting its tusks into the knight and lifting him clean off the ground before tossing him aside into the opposite pool. Lenna's hands flew to her mouth as she stifled a scream, the unmoving knight bouncing with a loud "clang" into the rear of the pool and sinking against the wall, his chin only inches above the frothy water. Garula then turned its attention to the would-be interlopers, narrowing its headlamp-esque eyes that were filled with a malice Bartz had never witnessed in any monster before – and he had fought a good lot of them.

"Uh-oh," he gulped. "Here it comes!"

"Lenna, transform into a knight, quickly!" Faris barked. "Armor will be the only assurance you have of not dying instantly if you get trampled!"

"R-Right!" Lenna gulped, tossing her crystal into the air and trading in her white mage robes for resplendent pearl armor that hugged her petite frame, winged ornaments pulling her hair back from her face. All four knights drew their blades, slowly forming a circle around Garula as the beast snorted in distress and made eyes at the oblivious crystal. It quickly became obvious that they were not going to be able to herd the monster out on its own – it clearly would not give up until it had done whatever it was it had climbed up the length of the tower to do.

"We have to stop it from attacking the crystal," Galuf frowned. "If we don't…this is all for naught."

"But what if this is Tina's Garula?" Lenna whimpered. "I can't…I can't kill her pet…!"

"This isn't the Garula we know!" Bartz cried. "Something about its eyes…it isn't right. Please, Lenna – you have to be brave if worse comes to worst!"

"N-No!" Lenna screamed, tears streaming down her face. "I can't…I can't sacrifice anything else that people love…!"

Her shrieking caused Garula to panic, and the beast turned the entirety of its bulk to face Lenna, snorting in warning before barreling after her. As Lenna shrunk back, eyes wide, Faris dove in between them, thrusting her blade into Garula's open maw and grabbing hold one of the monster's tusks for leverage as her feet slid across the glass floor, her armor shrieking with the effort like nails on a chalkboard. The color drained from Lenna's face as Garula gagged on Faris's blade, a rush of blood and bile pouring from its mouth. It then collapsed in a seizing heap that made the entire chamber shudder.

"It's done," Faris muttered, quickly withdrawing her filthy blade and discarding it in one of the pools of water, as if the very sight of it disgusted her. Lenna turned away, her shoulders heaving as she pressed her palms against the dais, screwing her tear-logged eyes shut. Bartz lowered his head as he approached her, suddenly tripping over one of the snaking vines that climbed toward the crystal and crashing forward. The vine snapped under the strength of his greaves – though instead of exposing tender green insides, it instead erupted in a mess of steam and strange, wiry, iron guts that spilled out onto the floor.

"What the hell?" Bartz gulped, totally shattering the somber moment, and Galuf's gaze trailed over the length of the vine toward the crystal, his eyes widening.

"My word – those aren't vines at all – they're cords! Conduits for the machinery that amplifies the crystal's power, no doubt!"

"…Huh?" Lenna sniffled, lifting one of the vines in her hands and turning it over several times before snapping it in half. Sure enough, more machinery spilled out, a whimper of steam escaping into the air that burned the tip of her nose.

"This may be the only way we can stop the machine!" Faris glowered, grabbing a fistful of vines for herself and smashing them over her knee. "Everyone…hurry!"

As Bartz, Galuf and Lenna hacked away at the vines with their swords, the crystal above seemed to be responding in turn – its light, already dazzling when they had stepped in the chamber, was glowing brighter and hotter with each new vine that was decimated, the warmth washing over the four of them like a sunlit bath.

"Look!" Lenna cried, shielding her eyes. Faris dropped another tattered collection of vines, staggering backwards from the sudden onslaught of light.

"The crystal..."

A delicate "ting" echoed in the chamber – like the ringing of a tiny glass bell – it was nearly swallowed by the surging waters that had suddenly started to pour into the pools surround them. Bartz lowered his sword and narrowed his eyes, barely able to make out the hairline crack that had formed in the crystal's face. A painful twist in his chest made the air rush out of his lungs – and before he could warn the others, the hairline crack exploded into a cluster of delicate fissures, each one running up a different length of the crystal's face and brimming with extraordinary luminosity.

"N-No…!" Bartz screamed. "Wait, please!"

The chamber sank into a sudden and stunning darkness as the light in the crystal's core sank into oblivion, and the raging waters in both the pools and waterfalls halted in place. The sound of grinding, tinkling glass erupted once more, and it was only seconds after Bartz managed to shield his face that the crystal exploded into a brilliant hail of stardust, layering the chamber in a blanket of exquisite despair.

Lenna, who had fallen to her knees in a pile of the discarded vines in an effort to protect herself, slowly lifted her head and blinked until her eyes had adjusted to the darkness. She raised her palms, both covered in crystalline decay, her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth as she choked out a strangled sob. "We were too late... _again_."

"Lenna…" Faris shook her head slowly, sinking down to her knees next to the princess and wrapping her in a shaky embrace. "I'm sorry…I'm _so_ sorry…"

Bartz let his sword drop to the ground, his fists clenched so painfully that he could feel the gauntlets strapped across his wrists cutting off his circulation – but he didn't much care at the moment.

 _How can this be? How did we mess this up yet again?_

Galuf stared ahead listlessly, his mind spinning. He had been hoping that this time, he would have learned something – anything – from the crystal – but this hadn't at all been like last time when he had encountered the already shattered Crystal of Wind. This time, he had felt nary a stir in his memory, no hint of why it was he chased the crystals so fervently. This time, for sure, he thought a whole crystal might…

"Uhnnn..."

Galuf spun around, fearful that Garula had somehow come back from the dead. But instead, he found the knight in orange armor dragging himself out of what everyone had thought had become his watery grave, frantically trying to unclasp the helmet that was waterlogged. Galuf sprinted to his side, hauling the man the rest of the way out of the pool, and reached up to unfasten the helmet. Once he had managed to tug it away, a good amount of blood-tinged water pouring to the floor along with it, the sandy-haired knight opened his onyx eyes, peering up at Galuf with a mix of wonder and relief that flooded his creased forehead.

"Uhnnn...Lord Galuf!"

"...Me?" Galuf gasped, stupidly pointing to his own chest. Had he seriously heard this guy correctly, or were his ears still ringing from the explosion? "You know who I am?"

The knight lowered his gaze, a trail of blood escaping the corner of his mouth as he hacked up another mouthful of water. His voice was trembling and laced with deep shame, though Galuf certainly couldn't imagine why.

"Lord Galuf... I couldn't protect it... For-forgive...me…I beg of you."

* * *

To be continued in _8: Fireborn_.


	8. Fireborn

8: Fireborn

"Hey!" Galuf shook the knight's shoulders, his voice rattling in his throat. "Stay with me, man! Please, tell me who I am!"

Bartz, Lenna and Faris were staring at the two of them, their mouths pressed tightly in matching thin lines. The knight's eyes rolled back in his head as he began to cough harder, another stream of blood and water expelling all over Galuf's armor.

"Fire crystal...protect...ngh..."

His wrist twitched, and for the first time, Galuf noticed the knight was holding something in his hand – a small black box with a single switch. His thumb desperately stretched to reach for the switch, and when Galuf guided his hand toward it, the sound of crumbling brick and glass erupted from the back of the chamber, revealing a gaping hole that would lead them outside. An involuntary spasm ransacked the knight's body, and only seconds later, he was no longer of their world, releasing his grip on the device that had blown out the wall. Galuf gently laid his fingertips upon the man's eyelids, sliding them shut with a quaking sigh.

"I'm sorry…" he whispered, lowering his head. "Please, go in peace. We'll save the fire crystal in your place. Somehow…"

"Galuf…" Faris trailed off, her eyes widening as dim pockets of light suddenly illuminated throughout the chamber. Still clutching Lenna to her chest, she turned to count, and noted five lights total, scattered across the room. One of them, which had come to rest near Bartz's feet, glimmered at the young man beckoningly, briefly dislodging him from grief-induced stupor. As he reached down to scoop it up, the realization clicked immediately in his brain – this was a crystal shard, just like the kind they had found in the Wind Shrine. He held it in the air for Faris to see, blinking through his tears with swollen lids.

He hadn't even realized he was crying.

She quickly averted her gaze from his pained expression, focusing instead on the light shining from his hand.

"The crystal fragments are glowing..." She murmured. "Just like before…"

"Are they gonna give us their power, too?" Bartz directed his question to no one in particular, instead asking the dreary, weeping chamber. As if to reply, his crystal fragment borne from the Crystal of Wind, which was embedded within the armor strapped to his chest, began to pulse in unison with the new fragment, growing painfully hot against his skin. As he bit down on his lip in an effort to stifle the pain, the two fragments erupted in a spill of light, fusing together into a larger, but still incomplete shard. Swirls of cerulean and flecks of pearl debris were woven together mid-waltz, frozen forever in time. Bartz's armor melted away, and he found himself transformed back to his original form, the crystal quietly pulsing in his palm.

Faris gently released Lenna, issuing orders for the rest of the light warriors with a wave of her hand to collect the remaining shards. As the women split up, Galuf laid the knight to rest on the cold, water-stained floor, and reached over the pool he had been slung in, fishing out another one of the shards for himself. Just like Bartz's, they fused together, deactivating his transformation and leaving behind a singular, slightly bigger fragment.

Lenna, the last of them to pick up a shard of her own, gasped as it lifted in the air to join with the Crystal of Wind, and the same haunting, yet serene, voice called out to them that had been in the Wind Shrine, speaking directly into each of their minds. Bartz lowered his chin, closing his eyes to concentrate on the words that seemed to resonate perfectly in time with each beat of his heart, spreading throughout his body like the ripples on the surface of a pond.

 _"Resting within these shards, light warriors of a fallen age who were once blessed by the crystals...and now, it is time for those powers to be inherited by yourselves, the progeny of pure light. A mighty berserker. A resourceful red mage. A meticulous time mage. An enchanting mystic knight. A courageous summoner. Their souls, one with the crystal…and now at your call."_

"Yet more powers?" Lenna gulped out loud. "I don't understand…if we're supposed to be saving the crystals…why do we get stronger when they meet such a terrible fate?"

But of course, the voice didn't answer her. Bartz felt the ghostly presence leave his mind, and the crystal became cool to the touch between his clutching fingers.

"That's a good question," Galuf frowned. "What is the true purpose of the crystals, if their ultimate powers are only discoverable after they've been destroyed?"

"Can we talk philosophy and the mysteries of the universe once we are out of this creepy place?" Faris hissed. She had shrugged off the crystal's dying words and was struggling to reach the fifth and final crystal shard, which was tucked behind a pile of rubble thanks to the explosion the knight's device had set off. "Will someone help me lift some of this junk so we can get this shard, fetch King Walse, and get out of here?"

But just as Galuf made his approach, the rubble and everything else that remained in the chamber (which wasn't much now that the crystal had shattered, save for the collateral damage Garula had caused in the throes of battle) began to shake violently, and with far more force than they had experienced in the throne room back in Walse.

"What's going on!?" Bartz cried, his teeth chattering together as his feet nearly flew out from under him. "A-Another meteorite!?"

Faris gave up on the fifth crystal shard and peered out the opening that had been blown open, unleashing a string of curses that was surely not going to precede good news. "Argh – the tower – it's _sinking_!"

"What!?" they screamed in unison, racing to Faris's side to get a look for themselves. Bartz's heart plummeted to his stomach when he realized Faris hadn't been quite accurate – it wasn't just the tower that was sinking – but the entirety of the peninsula it sat upon. The oceans below, churning with an unbridled rage, were claiming the land wholesale for its own, dragging tracts of beaches and the neighboring fields into its maw and inching ever closer to the tower itself. In only a few moments, the entryway to the tower would be consumed and flooded – and then it would only be a matter of time before the remainder followed.

"The Crystal of Water – its very presence sustained this place after it was built," Lenna sniffed. "With the crystal gone, and the oceans out of control…the gods only know what will come next."

"Well, I don't want this to be my final chapter," Faris snorted. "I ain't ready to be claimed by the sea yet – I still got a lot of conquering to do, on the surface, mind you! We'll have to jump – and we need perfect timing."

"What!?" Bartz blanched. "Are you _crazy_?"

"We got nowhere else to go, genius," Faris sneered. "Try running downstairs – you'll be sucked under when the tower fills up and will never escape in time." She turned back to the opening, crossing her arms. "We'll have to jump right when the tower starts to collapse – so we don't get taken under with it. If we're lucky, we'll remain on the water's surface long enough to make our way to shore."

"And if we're not lucky?" Lenna asked pointedly, and Faris shrugged.

"Then I'll see you all in hell, I suppose."

Even in the midst of an unprecedented crisis, Lenna still found it in her to wrinkle her nose in disgust at Faris's vulgarity.

"This really isn't going to help with my fear of heights," Bartz muttered.

The tower began to quake harder, chunks of the ceiling raining down and decimating what was left of the once-peaceful reflecting pools and tearing down the aqueducts. As the world around them began to suddenly plummet from beneath their feet, Faris counted to three, and then screamed for everyone to jump. Closing his eyes, Bartz grabbed the hand nearest to his – he didn't care who it belonged to – and took a flying leap.

What felt like decades later, he felt a surge of raw, inexplicable pain strike the entirety of his body, like someone had smacked every inch of skin off his bones with a mighty backhand. Next came a rush of bubbling, salty cold that made him simultaneously sting and go numb all over. The hand he had been desperately clinging to was ripped away, and when he forced himself to open his eyes, he realized he was plunged deep into the ocean, dragged down so far that he couldn't see even a hint of the setting sun dipping over the water's surface.

"Aughhh!" Bartz gurgled, his lungs exploding in flames that forced his body to shudder and exhale what remained of his oxygen. The harder he tried to propel himself upward, the heavier his limbs got, and the more deeply drenched in sleep his mind became.

 _Oh gods…this is it. I'm really going to die this time._

Too stunned to even pretend he remembered how to use his crystal, he felt himself sinking deeper into the abyss, allowing his stinging, brine-ridden eyes to slide shut for a brief moment of rest. As the seconds he counted between the beats of his heart grew longer in length, he realized all he could think about as the world bubbled away was how sorry he was that he had let the others down.

 _Galuf…Lenna…Faris…I guess I wasn't as good a friend as I should have been._

 _If I had known how much this was going to hurt…I would have told you guys a lot more how dearly I enjoyed our short time together._

A string of bubbles erupted from Bartz's mouth as he went limp, his body silently sinking backwards into a swirling shadow that had been crouched in the depths. A gleaming turquoise gaze locked upon its new prize, unleashing a warning roar.

"Rawwwwwr…!"

* * *

 _What was that…?_

Faris spun around in place – or at least as well as she could as she struggled to fight the overwhelming pressure of the water that was trying to pin her down. One arm was clinging to Lenna's still body, and she was using the other to desperately swim upward, though that was proving close to impossible without Lenna's help.

"Rawwwwwr!" The underwater scream came yet again, closer this time. Faris bit her lip, turning away and deciding it was time for a new strategy before their new buddy joined them. She swam beneath Lenna, wrapping the princess's arms around her neck and calmly, but with renewed urgency, tying them together by the wrist with her cloak so that she wouldn't slip away. As she checked the knot one last time to make sure Lenna was staying put, Lenna's pendant drifted upward in the current from beneath her dress, floating directly in Faris's line of vision. The glimmering dragon's wing danced tantalizingly before the pirate, whose own pendant on its leather cord had floated upward as well, forming a perfectly matched pair of fluttering wings in the shape of a shattered heart.

 _No…no!_ Faris thought frantically, shaking her head. _No time to think about that now…it's…it's impossible anyway. Lenna's not…she's not…_ ** _you're_** _not…_ She stuffed her necklace back into her own shirt just so that she wouldn't have to stare at it, and began once more to propel them upwards, now having the strength of both of her arms to rely on. But she could now feel another presence creeping up behind her, and she knew in her heart of hearts that she wasn't going to be strong enough to escape it. Her lungs were about to burst, her head was throbbing with each strained beat of her heart, and she realized that after a minute of excruciating effort, she hadn't moved herself or Lenna an inch forward.

Suddenly, the shadow enveloped her, a slimy tail wrapping itself around her waist and yanking her and Lenna a couple feet closer to the surface. Faris didn't bother resisting, and instead found herself staring ahead, dead-eyed, not sure if she was having one of those crazy hallucinations that you were rumored to get once you started asphyxiating from lack of oxygen. The shape of the creature that had grabbed hold of her was hauntingly familiar, with a long, serpentine neck, and the color of the scalloped flesh Faris's fingers were unconsciously digging into was a brilliant mix of fuchsia and periwinkle – more beautiful than any jewel she had ever coveted.

"Syldra…?" Faris mumbled, the taste of the ocean flooding her mouth. "Did you come to see me off to the great beyond, lass…?"

"Reeeee!" the creature replied, leaning in closer and blowing bubbles in Faris's face. Clutched in her maw were the tattered collars of Bartz's tunic and Galuf's gilet, and both men were pale blue from lack of oxygen and knocked out, like Lenna. Faris blinked once more for good measure, just to make sure she really wasn't going crazy, and threw her arms around Syldra's neck, crying out.

"Syldra! Holy hell, you're alive!"

With one last squeal, Syldra pulled away, tightening her hold on Faris and Lenna before bolting for the water's surface, her webbed fins in the place where Hiryu's wings would have been, propelling in a blur that made Faris's head spin. She let her eyes close, clinging to Lenna as the ocean around them became a jet stream that they were torpedoing through with the speed of a shooting star through the heavens.

A few moments later, Faris found herself tossed upon the shore of the Walse peninsula – or at least, what was left of it. Lenna was deposited beside her, and finally came Bartz and Galuf, who were dropped from Syldra's maw on Faris's opposite side. Leaning in, Syldra tenderly nudged the three of them one at a time while Faris hacked her lungs out, the same milky glow bursting forth from their crystals that Hiryu had awakened in Lenna's when he had rescued her on the North Mountain. _Dragon magic,_ Faris thought to herself. _Supposedly more potent than even the most powerful human-slung spells._ As everyone stirred awake, taking their turns coughing up the ocean's bounty, Faris leapt to her feet, throwing herself onto Syldra before the drake could lift her head away from the others.

"Syldra!" She gasped, blinking the tears away from her eyes. "I can't believe it…you're here…you're really here! I thought I had lost you forever!"

But when Syldra replied, her mighty roar had been reduced to the tiny mew of a kitten, and the beautiful rainbow hue in her scales that Faris had just witnessed underwater was fading fast to a sickly gray. Faris pulled away, pressing her hands to Syldra's jowls. Her cheeks were hallowed out, her eyes glassy and half-closed as she drank in Faris's faltering smile. Her flippers, which had exuded such tremendous power only moments before, were now limp and crumpled, barely holding her up on the beach.

Lenna moaned and pushed her soaked hair away from her eyes before clutching the warm glow Syldra had left behind in her chest. It only took one short glance at their savior for her to realize the horrifying truth of what had transpired – she had endured enough loss in her nineteen short years to recognize the blight lacing Syldra's breath as she had nuzzled Lenna back to consciousness.

"Syldra..." Lenna gasped, her voice cracking. "You used the last of your strength to save us...didn't you?"

Syldra gave a slight nod before pressing her cheek to Faris and offering another weak roar, like she was whispering a secret to her big sister. Faris pulled back, aghast, her eyes watering yet more fiercely. Next to Lenna, Bartz and Galuf had regained their senses, but had been stunned into silence by Lenna's declaration. They could only stare piteously at the most fearsome pirate in the known world, clutching to her depleted drake like a child would a timeworn rag doll.

"What are you saying?" Faris choked. "Syldra! You can't die, I won't let you! I won't make the same mistake as last time in the canal…I'll chase you to world's end, if I have to!"

Syldra shook her head, dragging her pale white, forked tongue over Faris's cheek before pulling away and slinking back into the ocean. Faris screamed out a string of obscenities and ran after her, the sobs racking her chest so hard that she could hardly stagger much further than the point where the water reached her knees. Before Syldra's head sank beneath the water, she uttered one last roar to Faris, tilting her head just right in the light of the sunset to make it look as if she were smiling. Faris gritted her teeth and tried to push forward, but found herself being stalled by a pair of pale hands wrapped around her waist. When she glared up, she saw Lenna standing behind her, her forehead pressed to Faris's hunched shoulders – her dragon wing pendant hanging limply from her neck.

 _Syldra…_ Faris closed her eyes, finally yielding to Lenna's strength. She reached inside her shirt, brushing her thumb over her own pendant as she tried to make sense of Syldra's last words – words that only she could understand, spoken in the secret language the two of them had shared since Faris was a lass. _What did you mean…to give the love I had for you to someone else who needs it more?_

 _Who else in this world could possibly need the love of a wretched orphan like me?_

"Syldra..." Lenna sniffled into Faris's back. "Thank you...for everything. I'll do whatever it takes to save this world…so that the one you loved most can live a peaceful, happy life. I'll watch Faris in your place – it's a promise."

Faris bit her lip, releasing the pendant before letting her hands sink over Lenna's. Lenna peered up, expecting Faris to tell her off or to pry her hands away in a huff. But instead, she felt Faris's fingers entwine with her own, and smiled slightly, resting her head back in the nook of Faris's warm back. Faris closed her eyes, suddenly overtaken by a memory she thought had been long-forgotten. She was being tucked into bed by Doc Elroy during a particularly nasty bout of sea plague, and she was still recovering in isolation. Every night, he would read her a story to help her sleep, and the story that night was particularly exciting – it was the conclusion to a fairy tale they had been working on the entirety of her illness – _The Little Mermaid_.

But the story hadn't exactly ended the way Faris had anticipated. The beautiful mermaid, despite desperately wishing for her prince to love her, had not seen her love reciprocated, not even after she had given up her life in the ocean to become a human. And so, per the covenant she had entered into with the sea witch, on the last night the mermaid was allowed to be a human, she threw herself into the ocean to die and become sea foam, rather than save herself by stabbing her prince in the heart.

 _"I don't get it," Faris had pouted after the story had ended. "Why did the mermaid have to die just because the prince didn't love her?"_

 _"Don't think of it that way," Doc Elroy replied thoughtfully. "Rather than be controlled by what she thought was her destiny to be alone in a world in which she felt she never quite belonged – the mermaid took her fate into her own hands, instead. Love can simultaneously be the most wonderful feeling in the world…and a source of depthless pain. What makes us human is our capacity to love – but…I suppose it's our greatest weakness, as well." He shook his head, smiling. "It's one of those things you'll better understand when you grow up."_

 _"Forget that," younger Faris grunted, already bored that she hadn't gotten to hear about the prince getting stabbed – those were the kinds of stories she was used to hearing around the fires with the other pirates when she wasn't sick. "Aye, when I'm a grown lad, I'm gonna be my own prince. Put yer gil on that."_

 _I tried, Syldra_ , Faris thought to herself, swallowing back her tears. _But a false prince can't save anyone…myself included…_ The dragon wing pendant around her neck had taken on the weight of a boulder. Whatever it was she had thought she had seen while she was drowning, whatever fairytale it was her oxygen-deprived brain had concocted…well, that was all it had been. A fairytale.

"F-Faris…" Lenna gulped, pointing out toward the ocean as Bartz and Galuf silently stumbled toward them, their gazes dripping with pity. "L-look…"

She shivered as her gaze followed Lenna's, scanning the melting horizon. It might have been her imagination, but it almost looked as if a delicate spray of sea foam was rising from the now eerily-calm ocean into the sky, rainbow bubbles racing heavenward together…eager to take their place among the stars in the unfurling velvet night.

* * *

"How is she doing?" Bartz asked as Lenna shut the bedchamber door behind her.

"As good as to be expected, I suppose," Lenna sighed, tugging on a lock of hair nervously. "She passed out quite nearly right away – with only a few bottles of brandywine to assist. Her last mutterings were about that crystal shard we had to abandon in the tower."

 _…Which is probably being eaten for dinner by a kraken as we speak_ , Bartz thought to himself. _Pity we couldn't save it with the rest…_

"It's a miracle more people weren't hurt during the tower's collapse," Galuf marveled. He and Bartz had been parked on a silk-upholstered bench in the hallway of the suite of rooms they had been granted use of by the order of King Walse himself, trying to figure out what to do next while Lenna had tried to get a distraught (and now falling-down drunk) Faris to bed. When they had managed to drag themselves back to the castle using Hiryu, they had discovered that not only had the guards Lenna had cured escaped the tower in time, but that they had also gone in to rescue the king before its collapse. As a result, the only known casualty at the tower was the mysterious knight that had claimed to know Galuf.

They had also learned that the castle guards had investigated the meteorite next to the tower, though nothing was found – dangerous or otherwise. Galuf wished they had gotten a chance to explore, too – but after the chaos of the tower's collapse, and barely escaping death themselves – he was more than alright with taking a reprieve.

A gentle knock came from the main door to the suite, making all three of them jump in place. Lenna recovered first and called out for the visitor to come in, though her eyes were still wide as the suite doors pushed open. They were greeted by a Walsian handmaiden, who bowed very quickly before getting on with her business.

"Princess Lenna – if you have not yet retired for the night, King Walse requests your presence in his chambers."

"Me?" Lenna blinked. "I heard the king was gravely injured. Does he really have the strength to converse at this time?"

"He insisted that I find you as soon as he woke," the handmaiden pushed. "What shall I tell him?"

Lenna glanced back and Bartz and Galuf, who could both only offer unhelpful shrugs. She resisted rolling her eyes, figuring that she may as well get this over with, even if she was utterly exhausted. At least the two of them could be there to nurse Faris's broken heart, if she were to wake up before morn.

"You don't have to pass along any message. I'll go with you now."

"Very good," the handmaiden nodded, escorting Lenna away from the room. Once the door swung shut behind her, Galuf sank back on the bench, sighing.

"What's up?" Bartz queried, and Galuf shrugged, blowing a lock of hair out of his face.

"That strange knight…I just can't get him out of my head. How did he know me? What kingdom did he hail from? Nobody else that encountered him seemed to know. He could have held a _huge_ clue as to where I came from…and poof, any hope of that died with him." He turned to Bartz hopefully, his eyes narrowed. "Did you happen to recognize the armor he was wearing?"

"I'm sorry," Bartz sighed, shaking his head. "There was nothing familiar about him – I only wish there was something we could do." He pulled out his newly-fused crystal, holding it up to the candlelight of their suite. "I was thinking…we now hold the power of time mages, right? Can we do something with that? Turn back the clock and do it all over?"

Galuf chuckled, shaking his head. Sometimes, talking to Bartz was like conversing with a naïve child. It would be kind of cute and slightly less pathetic if the young man wasn't two decades into his life.

"Time magic doesn't work that way, son. It can alter the perception of time to the target, but not time itself."

"Huh?"

"For example, if I were to cast "Slow" on you, you would move at about half the speed you normally would – but that's because your body movement is being altered, and thus your perception of time is altered along with it."

"How do you know all this stuff?" Bartz raised an eyebrow.

"I just do!" Galuf huffed. "If I knew _how_ I knew, don't you think I'd be a little less angsty about the whole amnesia thing right now?"

"OK, OK," Bartz sighed. "Sorry. Let's not fight."

But Galuf didn't want to fight either, and he immediately felt bad about snapping. The truth was, nothing about the Crystal of Water rescue mission had gone the way anyone had wanted, so there was no point in stewing in the mess that had been left behind. He decided a change of subject about something they both liked was in order. "So, what do you think King Walse has to say to Lenna?"

"He'd best be kissing her royal behind," Bartz snorted. "If it wasn't for her, he probably wouldn't be alive right now."

"True enough," Galuf nodded. "But I'm sure Lenna doesn't think that way."

"No, she wouldn't," Bartz stared down at his feet. "She's probably worried about not having done enough."

* * *

"Your Majesty, Princess Lenna Charlotte Tycoon is here to see you, as requested."

"Very good. Please leave us."

The handmaiden deposited Lenna in a chair next to the king's bed before turning on her heel and walking right back out the door. Lenna swallowed her nerves and lifted her eyes to the king, who was propped up against a colony of pillows in his four poster, canopied bed that currently had the heavy red silken drapes tied back with gold-flecked ropes. The man looked as if he had aged one hundred years since Lenna had last seen him. His gaunt complexion, chalky, cracked lips, and lack of billowing robes to falsely convey bulk where there was none made Lenna feel as if she were standing over a mere shadow of a human – even his fiery red hair had appeared to dull several shades.

"Princess..." Walse croaked, starting to lift a hand toward her but thinking better of it when he realized he could barely push away his blanket. "You were completely right..." He let out a string of painful-sounding coughs, and Lenna felt her insides twist as she hurriedly turned to seek out a cup of water on the nightstand behind her. Luckily, the handmaiden had left a freshly-filled glass pitcher dripping in condensation and a pewter goblet, and Lenna shakily went to work filling it before she had a dead royal on her hands.

"King Walse!" she admonished, handing the goblet to him once it was full. "Don't push yourself..."

"I mean it," he murmured into the goblet, taking another long gulp before continuing. "I've called you here to advise you of what is to come next, should you trust me enough to take any of my counsel after the foolish mistakes I have made."

"Your highness, I will gladly take any advice I can get," Lenna replied solemnly, and every word that left her lips was the truth. "Tycoon and Walse didn't stop being allies just because of a disagreement."

"Disagreement…huh," Walse smiled slightly, though Lenna could tell it hurt for him to do so. "You'll be a wise ruler when your father passes the throne on to you. He must be extremely proud to have a daughter like you as his heir – you're one in a million, Princess."

" _One_ in a million…" Lenna's lips twisted sourly, and she had to swallow what it was she really wanted to say – or rather scream – at him. Her eyes fell to her dragon wing pendant, and she found herself biting hard on her lower lip to keep it from quivering. _Sarisa…it seems the entirety of the world has forgotten you existed. You, Tycoon's true heir…_ Instead of offering up a remedial history lesson to the defeated king, which would do no one any good, she forced herself to nod, as if to gesture for him to go on. He sank back deeper into his pillows, and Lenna took the liberty of setting his empty goblet back on the nightstand.

"You must hurry to Karnak. Their fire crystal is being amplified with a machine similar to ours. And if my sources are correct, it is there you'll find the man behind it all: Cid Previa. He would know best what to do to stop this madness…if he's willing to cooperate and believe that his invention is running amok."

"Cid Previa?" Lenna tilted her head – that was a name she had never heard before. "Thank you. I'll take it under advisement."

"There is one more thing you should know," Walse added. "It seems that a meteorite has fallen outside of Karnak as well..."

Lenna's fingers dug into the arm of her chair. " _What?_ How can that possibly be?"

"It would have been not too long ago," Walse sighed. "Before the winds stopped, and it was easier for us to cross into Karnak using our ships, and vice-versa, some of their scholars visited the castle to return a tome they had been copying for use in their library. That was when the rumors first flew about that a meteorite had made contact, but nothing seemed to come of it. In fact, I had entirely forgotten about it until we got a meteorite of our own."

"I see…" Lenna pressed her lips together. _A meteorite in close proximity to three of the crystals…I don't much care for a coincidence like that._

"There is no time to lose..." Walse urged. "If anyone can save the crystal in Karnak, it's you and your men, Princess Lenna."

"We'll do everything we can," Lenna assured him, rising to her feet. "Thank you for your time and advice, your highness." Walse seemed pretty pleased with himself as Lenna left, which she supposed was the best she could ask for when coming out of a meeting with him.

But there was still one major hurdle about their getting to Karnak he had not bothered to provide counsel on – it would not be as easy as simply telling her where she needed to go next.

* * *

 _I don't remember it ever being this dark…it's like every star has been plucked out of the sky…_

Faris forced herself to blink, realizing it had been far too long since she had last done so. She winced at the scratchiness of her lids dragging against her swollen eyes, which were now as a pink as a rabbit's. The gallons (or at least, that's what it felt like) of alcohol coursing through her veins probably wasn't helping matters – that, combined with the hours of silent sobbing against her pillow so that she didn't wake Lenna – had thoroughly dehydrated her to the point where she would wither up into a husk the moment the sun shone it's stupidly cheerful self through her window in the morning.

 _Argh…I haven't had a thirst like this in ages._

She had allowed herself the luxury of prying her face out of the tear-soaked pillow to get some air once she had been positive Lenna had fallen into her deepest sleep. Having spent enough nights with the girl now, Faris could detect exactly when that was by the way Lenna's breathing patterns shifted, and how she always curled up on her right side as tightly as a conch shell washed up on the beach. But the view of Walse outside Faris's window held no comfort for her tonight – seemingly every torch in the castle bounds had been extinguished, and the sky was painted black with streaky, inky clouds that obliterated the moon and blotted out any starlight. All was silent save for the constant hum of water that circulated the whole of the castle like an open-air bloodstream – if the world's wind hadn't been snuffed out, she imagined lying in bed in a place like this would have sounded the same as sleeping inside the lungs of a moss-drenched titan.

 _Water damn near everywhere in this place except for in a pitcher to drink from in this cell of a room_ , she thought bitterly. Had she been in a better mood and not already halfway down the path to a brutal hangover, she might have appreciated that it was one of the nicest residences she had yet to take shelter within as a pirate lord and a warrior of light. The overwhelming absence of any sign of life was starting to shake her anguished heart, and she found herself suddenly propelling out of bed, not bothering to pull on her boots before padding out the door in her bare feet and quietly latching it behind her.

She entered the hallway of the suite she barely remembered being half-carried into by Galuf and Bartz, Lenna's jade, tear-rimmed eyes haunting her like a second shadow the whole of their journey back until Faris had finally been able to block them out by collapsing in the first bed she stumbled upon and grabbing the nearest bottle of _whatever_ someone handed her. Unfortunately, she couldn't remember anything before that – her mind housed nothing save a foggy blur from the moment Lenna had pulled her out of the ocean. Each step she had taken back to Walse once Hiryu had landed had been accompanied with a skull-splitting throb of pain.

 _Guess I'll go this way,_ she thought, turning down the hall and exiting through the nearest door. She paused in place, closing her eyes to get a better sense of where the nearest flow of water was coming from. Short of a privy, she didn't much care what the source of her drink ended up being. A few moments later, she had stumbled up the stairwell of the tower next door, the sound of a distant waterfall echoing in the spire above. Minuscule droplets of mist glimmered in her hair like diamonds laid against velvet as she peered up, shielding her eyes. The frosted glass walls were trickling with streams of water that ran into narrow channels carved into the floor, which then drained into a filtration and irrigation system for the green houses on the next level below.

 _How long is it gonna be until the water crystal's destruction turns this place into a wasteland?_ Faris wondered, shivering as she wrapped her arms around herself. _And why is it getting colder, the higher I go up? I thought heat was supposed to rise…_ Even so, the siren call of a palmful of clear, refreshing water straight from the falls was too irresistible, and so she climbed onward, trying to ignore the chattering that had taken over her teeth.

At the top of the spire, she stepped out of the threshold of the stairway, only to splash into a pool of knee-deep water that caused her exposed skin to erupt into a layer of goosebumps. The waterfall in the center of the room was pouring in through a crystal-mesh skylight, surrounded by a network of aqueducts that spiraled from its core and escaped through tiny openings in the ceiling. The waterfall careened into a throne of crystal that blossomed from a raised marble platform, flanked by rolling waves of mist.

Fully shaken awake by the drastic drop in temperature, Faris waded to the waterfall, vowing that she would only stick around for the few minutes needed to drink her fill before she ended up freezing to death. Hoisting herself out of the water to climb onto the platform, she slumped against the crystal throne, her eyes rolling back as she heaved a ragged sigh. Somehow, it was even colder out of the water, despite the heaviness of the summer night air that had infiltrated the tower. She lazily extended a hand, folding her fingers into the shape of a shallow bowl, and bringing it to the waterfall's edge to catch herself a drink.

It didn't occur to her booze-addled and sleep-deprived mind that after a few seconds, her hand should have been full, nor had she noticed that the length of her back that had laid upon the crystal had gone pleasantly numb, a strange warmth filling her frayed nerves that left her unable to move. It was only when her vision finally managed to regain focus that she saw her hand was still extended outward, frozen mid-air with the water overflowing in her palm and cascading around it like some simpering maiden in plaza fountain. She simultaneously tried to sit up straighter and draw her hand back, only to discover that had entirely lost control of her limbs.

"W…What?" She whispered, feeling as if a glove of lead was pressing down upon her windpipe. "I can't move…"

A sugary giggle washed over her; each note punctuated with a "pop" that sounded like a cluster of bubbles exploding at the surface of a bath. The mist surrounding the waterfall began to gather, taking the form of a lithe figure with an impossibly narrow waist, as if a sculptor's hands slipped and squeezed too tightly on still-wet clay. He would then proceed to overcompensate northward by forming boxy, slightly-pointed shoulders to balance the body proportions that resembled studded horn pauldrons sewn beneath flesh.

"Poor little princess, all alone…what did you hope to find in my throne of ice to heal that weary heart?"

"Heh…" Faris's lip jerked upward in a half-smile, the best she could now do as the figure filled in before her. _Throne of ice…? So, it wasn't crystal at all…_ "You're mistaken, I'm afraid – your princess is down below. I'm just a scummy pirate looking to quench my thirst."

With another giggle, the mist shifted fully into an ageless, navy-eyed and pupil-less woman, with ear-length spiky white hair that was pulled severely away from her face by a sapphire-studded tiara. There was not a stitch of clothing on her pale violet body, save for a translucent, flowing silk wrap that was strategically draped over her shoulders and fell into a skirt-like shroud at her hips. When her bare feet, encircled by diamond anklets the size of a toddler's fist, touched down upon the pooling water at the base of the falls, it instantly froze beneath her, crackling outward into a delicate bridge of ice that extended the length of the water-logged room and stopped right at the narrow strip of platform that was exposed between Faris's legs, millimeters away from climbing up her exposed toes. Amused that Faris didn't even attempt to flinch (not that she could), the woman stepped closer, her lips the color and sheen of freshly-blown glass revealing two slightly-overgrown canines.

"Oh, _I'm_ the one who is mistaken?" She crossed her arms beneath her chest. "Forgive me…It's been a while since I've met a human who lasted long enough to actually respond to me. I saw only a maiden with such a deliciously pure heart that I made some assumptions. They call me Shiva."

It didn't escape Faris that Shiva had made note of her obvious humanity, which probably meant Shiva was anything but. She decided not to let that phase her – maybe she was in the middle of some crazy, brandywine-induced nightmare and was really passed out on the tower steps, waiting for the unlucky guard that would find her sprawled in her own vomit during the morning rounds.

"All words that have never been used to describe me until now," Faris chuckled, not bothering to return the courtesy of sharing her name. If this was a nightmare, it didn't much matter. "Now, are you going to let me go, or is this going to have to get ugly?"

"Let you go?" Shiva shook her head, tracing a carefully filed, gemstone-filled fingernail down the length of Faris's jaw. It would have felt kind of good, almost strangely intimate, if Faris wasn't totally numb now. " _Oh no_ – I very much want to add you to my collection. The Crystal of Water has kept me trapped here for longer than I have memory, and now that it no longer binds me, I am free to surround myself by beautiful things again." She knelt at Faris's side, cheekily wrapping her arms around her neck. More of the strange warmth pooled in Faris's body, dripping down the length of her spine into her core, and she could feel herself involuntarily _relaxing_ beneath Shiva's embrace.

"The crystal…" Faris murmured, her eyelids fluttering. Someone had turned out the lights, and her body suddenly felt compelled to shut down along with them. "…What was I supposed to be doing with the crystal?"

"That's right…" Shiva cooed, smiling as she pressed her cheek to Faris's. "Just go to sleep… I'll make you a beautiful dream that sits on my shelf, and nothing will ever hurt again."

"A dream…" Faris murmured, her chin falling to her chest as Shiva pulled away. _She's right…in my dreams, everyone I love is still there, by my side – and I_ ** _remember_** _them. Mama…Papa…Syldra…and…_

 _And…_

A shimmery vision of Lenna bubbled up in her mind's eye, slumbering only a tower away. Faris found herself standing next to Lenna's bed, her feet cemented to the floor and her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth as Lenna rolled over, her dragon wing pendant tumbling over the neckline of the nightgown she had been loaned. Outside of their shared window, somewhere far away off the coast, a water drake's cry reverberated through the night, and in response, the dawn-streaked sky ignited into an ethereal light show that bathed Lenna in a pearl-drenched luminescence.

 _No… You're my only sister, Syldra…the only one who ever understood how badly it hurt to be alone. How could you possibly think I would replace you with anyone else on this dreary planet?_

 _But…still…_

A throbbing ache rolled through her chest, and Faris reached for her shirt, wincing as she retrieved the two crystal shards that had fused together and now burned to the touch. It was glowing with a powerful ruby light that exploded across the room, obliterating the strange, paralyzing warmth oozing through her body. As the bedchamber began to melt around her, and the sound of rushing water filled her ears, Faris closed her eyes, hoisting the crystal into the air.

 _That's right…Syldra didn't give up her life for me to die here. I'm…I'm not just Faris Scherwiz anymore. Something else burns inside of me…something I think I might have forgotten, even before I came to know the crystals…_

"Oh…oh dear… _NOOOO_!"

Shiva shrieked and flitted away just as the ice that she had woven around her captor like the wrapping on a birthday gift cracked down the middle, exploding in a fury of snow and diamond dust. Faris gasped for air as she fell out of the ice and stumbled forward, grabbing hold of her crystal as she fixed her glare on the startled ice sprite.

"One wrong move, and I'll transform into a black mage and nuke ya so fast that you'll be a puddle under my feet before ya can scream."

"Wait, wait!" Shiva gasped, raising her hands. "I don't want to fight any more – you passed, you passed! Just…put down your weapon."

"Eh?" Faris blinked, staring at her hands until she realized the crystal was the weapon Shiva was referring to. She hesitantly pressed her hands to her thighs, biting her lip. "Am I still sloshed, or did you say I 'passed'?"

"Well, both things can be true," Shiva muttered, her eyes narrowing. "But why do you act so surprised? I thought you came here to take the trial."

"What trial?"

"W-What trial?!" Shiva floated to Faris's side, tilting her head. "You're a _summoner_ , aren't you?"

 _Summoner? Where I have heard that word before?_

"No, but…" Faris looked down at her crystal, raising a brow. _Ah, that's right – in the water tower…the mysterious voice that granted us yet more powers…_ "…I suppose now I could _become_ one." She would have to figure it all out later, when she was a lot more sober. "And what do you have to do with any of it? What _are_ you, anyway?"

"I thought you knew all along," Shiva pouted. She seemed more upset about Faris having no idea who she was than her blatant miscalculation about Faris's intentions for climbing the tower. "I'm an eidolon. A spirit that resides on a phantom plane not visible or accessible to humans or monsters. But I can obtain a corporal form on your plane thanks to the powers of your crystals. Every eidolon is a specialist in a particular skill or element – I'm the guardian of ice. Summoners are humans that can call eidolons from their plane and cause them to materialize in your world."

"But in your instance, no one summoned you – the Crystal of Water trapped you here," Faris frowned, and Shiva nodded.

"That is correct. Eidolons can leave our phantom plane on our own accord if we want to. I was attracted to this place because of its marvelous beauty and the pure, abundant water – but my powers weren't compatible with those of the crystal guarding this nation, and my ice became my own prison. When the crystal shattered, I was finally able to gain control over myself again."

"So, all that stuff about adding me to your collection…it was a ruse?"

"Well…" Shiva shrugged, "It wouldn't have been a ruse if you didn't pass the trial! Normally, summoners engage in battle with eidolons to prove themselves worthy of calling the eidolon, and the payment for a battle lost is at the challenged eidolon's discretion. But…" She nodded toward the crystal clutched against Faris's thigh, her eyes widening. "…All I ended up doing was stoking the fire that was already raging inside of you. But…that's how she told me it would go, so I guess everything worked out the way it was supposed to. She wouldn't have warned me if _you_ were the one that was going to be in danger…"

"' _She_ '?" Faris huffed. "Who are you talking about?"

"You'll find out when the time is right," Shiva smiled, gently tapping her finger to the tip of Faris's nose. This time, instead of bone-melting paralysis, all Faris felt was the nip of frost. "I can't say any more right now – it's obvious you're too green to understand. But if you temper the courage burning in that heart of yours, you'll someday have what it takes to become a true summoner – with or _without_ the aid of a crystal – and that's when you'll understand how our meeting came to be."

"Tsk," Faris snorted, crossing her arms. "I don't much care for riddles, lass."

"Well, it's not _exactly_ a riddle," Shiva blinked. "But…to make it up to you, I'll let you call upon me whenever you need my aid. All you have to do is use your crystal to take the form of a summoner, and say my name. If your fellow light warriors do the same, I'll answer their call as well."

"Really, that's it?" Faris raised an eyebrow. "No virgin sacrifices, or bloodletting, or anything like that?"

"… _Really_ ," Shiva frowned, crossing her arms to mimic Faris. "Dear gods, how did you get chosen to be a light warrior, anyway?"

"You'll find out when the time is right, I suppose," Faris smirked, sticking out her hand. "So, how do we make this official? Do we toss one back? A gentlemen's handshake, or something else?"

"Um…a handshake is a bit unorthodox to enter into a covenant with an eidolon, but we can make it work," Shiva smiled, grabbing Faris's hand in her own and pumping awkwardly. "Please don't hesitate to call when you need me, Lady Faris Scherwiz."

It was only when Faris had reached the base of the water tower and turned to gaze back up the length of the stairwell one last time that she realized she had never told Shiva who she was.

At least, she thought she hadn't – she was admittedly still a bit too drunk to remember, and worse yet, she still hadn't gotten her water.

* * *

The next morning, Bartz rolled over in his unbelievably comfy bed, a small smile plastered on his face as he soaked in the morning sunlight pouring through the balcony installed in the chamber he and Galuf had gotten by default after Faris had chosen (i.e., passed out in) the room that ultimately went to the girls. Even though Lenna had come back from her conversation with the king in a bit of snit, she had brought them somewhat good news – that he now fully supported their mission to save the crystals, and had given them the name of the very man who could put a stop to all this madness for good – the father of the dread machines, Cid Previa.

But by that point, everyone had been brought to the brink of exhaustion by their long day and lack of any sustenance, so they agreed to reconvene the next morning after breaking their fast to come up with the official plan of what to do next.

Bartz slipped out of bed, running his fingers through his nest of wavy snarls (thanks to the hard-earned bath he had gotten to take last night) in place of a comb and making sure the ties for his pants were still in place before padding over to the balcony and unlatching the door. Galuf was still deep asleep in his own bed, and Bartz wanted to let the man rest as long as possible – he felt horrible that Galuf had been dealt another blow in the fight against his amnesia. With the sun hanging high in what looked to be a picture-perfect, cloudless day, Bartz could already feel the summer heat dancing on his bare skin before he got the balcony door fully open. After stepping outside and sliding the door shut behind him, he found himself perched on a white marble balcony, with gold-painted trim along the rails that reminded him of the crystal chamber in Walse Tower before both Garula and the explosion had made short work of it. When he shielded his eyes against the sun, he could make out the far-east meadow they had landed in when they had come to Walse yesterday, lush and green – but it was impossible to tell if Tina was there…and if she was all alone.

That was going to be awkward once they went back there to fetch Hiryu – whom had insisted on sleeping there again once they had escaped the tower and had refused to take the team any further, forcing them to walk back to the castle.

 _The look in that monster's eyes when it turned on us…something wasn't right. And that knight, before he was killed…he said something about Garula being controlled…_

 _…What could that possibly mean? Who would go through the effort to manipulate a common monster like that?_

"What are you thinking about, Bartz? You look lost in a dream."

Bartz blinked and turned to his right. Lenna was leaning over the ledge of the balcony next door, staring up at him. She was wearing her orange sundress and had her hair pulled back in a ponytail, though her hair was so short that most of it had already fallen out, framing her face in a cheerful splash of pink. Bartz wondered if she had woken up like that, and got a warm, tingly sensation in the tips of his fingers.

Lenna couldn't help but smile at the bemused, upward tug on Bartz's lips when he finally noticed she was there, and gave herself a mental pat on the back for not waiting any longer than she had to reveal herself to him – there was something kind of nice about waking up and finding a shirtless, well-built, and _bathed_ guy basking in the sun, and she thought she was very ladylike for not taking advantage of the view for longer.

"I was thinking about Garula and Tina, and what we might find when we went back to Hiryu," Bartz confessed, and the candy floss-like dreamland that was blossoming between the two of them was promptly shredded to pieces. Lenna nodded, turning back to the meadow.

"I was thinking about that as well, actually. It's all…very unfortunate."

They stood in silence for a few beats, and finally, Lenna spoke up again.

"I know we have to make for Karnak, but…well, I don't think it will be as easy as the king makes it sound."

"Why not?" Bartz realized he was finally going to learn why Lenna had returned to them last night in a sour mood.

"It's Hiryu…" Lenna lowered her eyes. "He's still recovering from whatever happened to him between his escape from the Wind Shrine and North Mountain. He did well to ferry us here to Walse and to the tower but…"

"…But Karnak is a long way," Bartz nodded. "It's nearly half-way across the world. And you don't want to push him."

"Yes, exactly," Lenna nodded. "I'm fearful of what may happen…"

An image of the dying Syldra fading away in the ocean bubbled up in both their minds, and Bartz found himself wrapping his arms around his bare upper body, suddenly cold despite the pounding sun.

"Lenna, we're not going to make you do anything you don't want to do," he said firmly. "I know we need to reach the Crystal of Fire, but…there's got to be another way that doesn't involve anyone else getting hurt."

"And if there's not?" Lenna murmured.

"There is, and we simply just don't know it yet," Bartz insisted. He was now thinking back to his conversation with Lenna on the mountain, and a brilliant idea was forming in his mind. He knew that Lenna was depressed about what happened to Syldra and Garula – that she somehow felt responsible for everyone's suffering. Maybe the counsel she needed wasn't what their next steps should be, but rather, an assurance that they were doing the best with what they had. He leaned over the balcony so that they were only several feet apart, raising his finger.

"Lenna – instead of worrying about Karnak, let's return to Tycoon for a while."

"Huh?" Lenna blinked, spinning around to face him.

"You're homesick, right? And there would be doctors there for Hiryu, too – it's not nearly as far as Karnak. We can go back to Tycoon, get Hiryu looked at, and maybe the scholars who came with Chancellor Louis to the wind shrine have dug up more information about the crystals that we can use to help us. Instead of pressing forward with a bunch of unknowns, let's hit the reset button and try to work out another plan."

"Bartz…" Lenna shook her head, amazed. "You really…"

"Huh?" Bartz smiled, and Lenna shook her head once more, giggling.

"…Never mind. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I…I think I'd like that. To return to Tycoon. We shall propose it to the others once they awaken."

"Good," Bartz smiled wider. "Um…it's going to be kind of cool, seeing where you live. I mean, this castle is OK, but I bet Castle Tycoon is really something."

"Hee hee," Lenna snorted. "Don't get _too_ excited. But you realize that if I take you to Tycoon, you'll have to show me where you live someday too, right? It's only fair."

"I live _everywhere_ ," Bartz opened his arms, pretending to take hold of the entirety of the kingdom below. "No mere man-made boundaries can contain an adventurer like me!"

"I'm serious!" Lenna pouted. "Everyone comes from _somewhere_ , Bartz Klauser. Don't think I haven't noticed that you're not keen to share with the group. Galuf may have amnesia, but I know you certainly do not!"

Bartz smiled slightly. It's not like he had anything to hide from her, but…oh, how to best explain?

"I won't say never. Maybe someday…we'll find ourselves there together. I know we all come from somewhere, but…for me, the past is the past, and this…" He gestured toward the space between their two balconies, which was only feet apart, but to him, suddenly felt like miles. "…This is my present." He lifted his gaze to hers, his jaw tightening. "…My future. This is what I care most about. Living today, living now. Being here, like this, talking to my dear friends."

Lenna pressed her lips together, the blood rushing to her cheeks, although for the life of her she couldn't understand _why_. And try as she might, she found that she couldn't bring herself to look away from his stare – not quite yet.

So, they spent their last few minutes together lost in their own little somewhere, until a crash next door and a string of curses announced to them that Captain Faris had finally awoken from her beauty sleep.

* * *

"Do as ya please, but I'm _not_ going to Tycoon. Drop me off at the pirates' hideout before you land, got it?"

"What!?" Lenna half-shouted, half-chewed, since Faris had made her declaration right after she had bitten into a large, crusty chunk of croissant. "Why in the world _not_?"

"'Cause I don't feel like it. Good enough excuse for you, yer highness?"

Lenna glared as she kept chewing (the croissants were particularly thick, Bartz observed as he polished off his second one), and Galuf sat back in his chair, folding his arms behind his head.

"Am I the only one who sees the obvious, here?"

"Huh?" Lenna and Faris gaped in unison, and Bartz reached for a third croissant, pretending he knew what Galuf was going on about. Galuf looked around the table for a solid minute, and made a show of checking to be sure they were alone before continuing. (They had been given use of a private, outdoor dining hall in their suite – could they _be_ any more alone?)

Galuf winked at Faris. "Isn't it obvious that she's hiding something major that she wants to keep under wraps from the Tycoon brass? I mean, besides the fact that she was already hiding the twins from us, if ya know what I mean."

"You'll say no more, old man!" Faris roared at the same time that Lenna squealed "Pervert!"

"What is Faris hiding?" Bartz blinked. If he were to be dropped in a children's comic strip right then, he would have been drawn with a giant question mark flashing over his head.

Just as Faris was about to lunge across the table and end Galuf's life with a butter spreader, he waved his hand in the air, not noticing the obvious and sudden rise in tension in the room. "Duh – she's a pirate, and one that was very active in the Tycoon region. A wanted criminal can't just waltz into the palace all willy-nilly – I'm sure you've robbed your fair share of Tycoon aristocrats, eh?"

"Um…yes, of course," Faris suddenly sat back in her seat, the blush of rage receding from her cheeks. "I have my men to think about, of course…if I were to be arrested in Tycoon, it would be a disaster – I'll die before ratting out where we're stationed, and then you'd be down one light warrior. Best not to risk it."

"…Uh-huh," Lenna purred, staring at Faris in disbelief over the rim of her juice glass. _I'm so sure that's the only reason you're avoiding coming back to Tycoon…_ She found her eyes wandering down the length of the leather cord Faris had tied around her neck, but the pendant she had gotten a sneak peek of when she had been helping Faris undress in the ship graveyard was buried beneath the usual high-collared shirts she favored.

"Oh, well that won't be a problem," Bartz laughed, tapping the crystal tucked in his pocket. "It's not like we don't have access to some amazing powers that will disguise us as anybody we want, right?"

Faris turned her glare upon him, hissing between clenched teeth. " _I suppose_."

"Well, then it's settled," Lenna chirped. "We'll all go to Tycoon together. But don't worry, Faris – your secret is safe with us! With my father away, I would be the head of the king's justice in his place, anyway – so if you do somehow get jailed, I promise to spring you right out!"

"How thoughtful," Faris rolled her eyes. "Man, do I know people in high places, or what?"

After breakfast, Lenna left a message with the king's handmaiden to thank him for his generosity, and they took off for the meadowlands to find Hiryu. Bartz watched as Lenna's shoulder blades suddenly hunched beneath her dress, the tendons in her neck pulling so tightly that he feared she had a hemorrhage coming on. He looked up, drawing in a sharp breath – there was Tina, bent over a pile of wildflowers, a half-woven flower crown strewn through her hair. The little girl noticed them right away, raising a handful of dandelions.

"You guys! Look what I made for Hiryu!" She pointed backward with her foot, and Hiryu lifted his head from the tallgrass, yawning. He was now anointed with a chain of daisies and thistles, and looked every vision of a beguiling, razor-blade toothed princess.

"I love it," Lenna choked, stroking Hiryu's snout.

"Has anybody seen Garula since yesterday?" Tina chirped, and the group simultaneously froze mid-breath. If they had averted their gaze any faster, the warriors of light would have all suffered from colossal whiplash.

"Nay, lass," Faris finally replied, crossing her arms over her chest. _I'm the one who did the deed – I need to take responsibility._ She thought about what Shiva had said about her "courageous heart", though she wasn't exactly feeling it right now – maybe she needed to be drunk for this, too. She hadn't yet gotten a chance to tell the others what happened in the water tower – she had been too distracted trying to convince Lenna not to make her go to Tycoon and secretly dreading this very moment. "I'm sorry, but…"

"What're you sorry for?" Tina smiled, snatching Faris's hand in her own. "You're leaving, right? You can't without saying goodbye to Garula first."

"Huh?" Bartz blinked. "But…"

She started tugging Faris away, who could only beg the others with her screaming eyes to not be left alone with Tina. Lenna hesitantly fell in step behind her, with Bartz and Galuf taking up the rear. They crossed the meadow in silence, Tina skipping along happily.

"Where is she taking us?" Galuf whispered. Bartz could only shake his head.

The trees lining the outskirts of the meadows grew thicker around them, and Tina paused every few steps, perking her ears as if to listen for something.

"I know the nest is around here somewhere…Garula's being quieter than usual…"

Lenna turned white as a sheet, clutching her hands together.

Suddenly, a loud snort erupted from a nearby bush, and Tina's eyes lit up. "Oh, here we go!" She tugged Faris harder, and after stumbling through the brush, pointed excitedly to a pile of muddy, hairy leaves covered in tangled red clumps of hair. "Look, look! Garula had _babies_!"

"…What!?" Faris squeaked between clenched teeth, and Lenna pushed past the two of them, her mouth flying open. Bartz and Galuf crept up behind her, and were surprised with another loud snort that ripped through the peaceful air as one of the clusters of leaves rolled over on its belly, rustling its snout to root out some breakfast at the large, quivering local milk bar that was momma Garula lying on its side.

"I thought Garula was a boy?" Galuf burst out laughing, so relieved at the sight of _Tina's_ Garula being alive and well that his cackle bordered on the edge of hysterics. "Or is giving birth something I forgot us men could do?"

"I thought so too," Tina shrugged, taking Galuf's lame amnesia joke at face-value as the ramblings of a confused, old man. "But when he didn't come back after dinner last night, I got worried and went poking around before I had to go to bed. And that's when I found this nest of babies! It's going to take me a while to get used to calling him…a…well, _her_."

"I know that feeling," Galuf smirked, winking at Faris. She promptly planted her foot into his shin, daring him to scream with her glare as he wordlessly flopped into a blooming mulberry bush.

"They're so cute," Lenna gasped, kneeling down to guide one of the babes to a free spot on Garula's abdomen where the others weren't nursing. "Oh gods…I'm…I'm so happy right now!"

"You can have one, if you want!" Tina beamed, assuming Lenna's excitement was due to her being as entranced by the hairy beastlings as she was. "But I went to the library, and read that Garula pups can't be weaned for at least eight weeks. So, you'll have to wait a while."

"Certainly," Lenna grinned. "I'll definitely come back to pick out a baby when our work is done!"

 _What a relief_ , Bartz thought, not being able to help but grin along with her. It wouldn't erase everything horrible that had happened in the last twelve hours, but it was a very small mote of light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. _But that garula that attacked us in the tower…who would go through such an effort to manipulate a wild monster when they could just walk in and take the crystal for themselves? It makes no damn sense…_

After they spent a few minutes playing with the pups and assuring Tina they would come back soon, they made their way back to Hiryu to hitch their ride back home to Tycoon. Before climbing atop of Hiryu along with everyone else, Lenna pressed her forehead to Hiryu's temple, whispering something that was inaudible to the others. Bartz could feel Faris's spine slacken in defeat beneath his cheek (he had accepted that at least for the duration of takeoff, he needed to cling to the nearest warm body, which was poor Faris), and he closed his eyes, wishing that he could just absorb all of her suffering over Syldra into himself.

 _If anything happened to Boko…what in the world would I do? Would I be able to just throw myself back into the fray like Faris has?_

But Faris herself hardly felt like she had one foot in the fray, let alone her entire self. Her half-hearted effort to get out of journeying to Tycoon had failed miserably, and she was far more terrified of what she might find waiting for her there than anything she had encountered thus far as a light warrior.

 _But I can't tell anyone_ ** _why_** _. It's insane enough to think, let alone say aloud. And Lenna…she's been acting queer, more so than usual. What in the world is she thinking?_

She turned her head slightly to glare back at Bartz, whose was now so thoroughly burrowed into her backside that if they got any closer, it was bound to be mistaken for an intimate act. She clenched her teeth together to hiss a warning, but her tongue went limp as she felt his fingers curl tighter into the curve of her hip. Even through the layers of her linen slacks and the rough-spun cottons of her tunic, she could feel a strange, melting warmth travel up the length of her spine, and it seemed to be emanating directly from him. She closed her eyes, turning away as Lenna hoisted herself aboard. If the princess noticed anything was amiss, she had the good graces not to say so out loud. Lenna's gaze was locked on the back of Hiryu's neck as she uttered the orders for liftoff, and Faris's hand drifted nearer Bartz's, millimeters from making direct contact.

 _Eh…to hell with it all. I don't have the energy to break his fingers right now. I need to conserve my strength for the more…pressing matters to come._

* * *

 _Meanwhile…_

"I evoke the agents of the heavens, guardians of the four holy lights – please find my heart to be a worthy vessel, and grant me sight that pierces even the darkest veil."

Brown eyes, crowned with the shadows born from a week of restless nights, slid shut as the girl reached around the nape of her neck, unfastening the rose quartz pendant that was weighing heavily over her chest. Bringing it forward, she rested her other palm at the base of the marble basin, and thrust the necklace over the basin's center, which was filled with shimmering turquoise water. Its reflection turned the pink stone floating above it to a pale lilac, streaking her cheeks with moonbeams.

The pendant slowly swayed back and forth over the water under its own volition, her wrist still despite the dull ache that was already settling in from holding it up. No matter how many times she had done this before, her body never seemed to get stronger – though she supposed it was a small wonder she was even able to sit upright at this point in her sleepless drifting through the days and nights.

But never mind that – she knew she had to clear her mind, or else this exercise would all be for naught. She swallowed the lead ball that had formed in her throat, bidding the curtain to fall over the harried thoughts stirring inside of her. A gust of unusually hot – at least, for nighttime – air blew through the window, blowing back the golden ringlets of her hair that were not pinned up and away from her face. When at last the pendant came to a halt, she opened her eyes once more, drawing a sharp breath as she searched the basin.

The reflection staring back at her was the nighttime sky tuned upside down, several waypoints from the season's constellations twinkling in the stillness of the water. The six-headed lord of dragons, Tiamat, had completely faded from sight in the basin, despite still hanging high in the heavens outside her window – that was when she had come to the realization that the Crystal of Wind was no more, several divinations ago. No one had had the courtesy to share that delicate piece of information with her, but it had made _some_ of the puzzle pieces fall into place in the matter of her missing kin. Drifting in the basin's center were three more stars – Bismarck, champion of the seas, Marilith, the mother goddess of monsters, and Hecatoncheir, the mighty giant. Marilith and Hecatoncheir were still burning brightly – _too_ brightly, something inside of her screamed – but Bismarck, which was directly beneath where her pendant had stopped swinging, was quivering in the pool, despite there being no movement in the entirety of the tower in which she had hidden herself. She had run up and down every flight of stairs to check that she was alone, and the master key in the satchel slung around her waist ensured that none could follow her.

"What is happening…?" She whispered, the pendant shaking in her fingers. A thin stream of bubbles began to rise between Bismarck's throat and tail, and the basin rattled harder, erupting in a sea of red. The screech of glass tore through her ears, and a shooting star ignited in the sky, its reflection exploding in turn within the basin.

 _The stars in Bismarck's constellation flickered and faded to black before her eyes._

She fell back on her knees, stunned, as the rose quartz pendant slipped through her fingers and plopped into the basin with a silent splash.

* * *

Hiryu let out an elated screech as Tycoon Castle came into view. A dragon's eyes were far sharper than any mere human's, and all four of his passengers had to crane their necks and squint through the blanket of clouds before they could even make out the castle's tallest spire, its cerulean-lacquered shingles a mirror of the summer sky.

"Home…!" Lenna gasped, a smile breaking out over her lips despite the weight of the Crystal of Water's fate still hanging heavily in her heart. Faris hid her grimace behind a curtain of violet, and Bartz, forgetting all about his fear, peered out eagerly along with Galuf to take in the view.

As the veil of clouds and mountain mist lifted, Tycoon blossomed fully into their sights, an ivory lotus flanked by azure vines of the castle moats and valley rivers. Though Walse had certainly been steeped in its own brand of beauty – crystal waters that purified all that it touched and the smell of the ocean that permeated molecule of air – Bartz realized he had been right to anticipate the wonders Tycoon held in store for them. He of course had seen the region from the nearby beaches and forests, but to take it in like this, to experience Tycoon like the dragons who once filled its skies…

…He realized it was moments like this that filled his every cell with his love of wandering the world, even as a small boy playing in the fields of Lix.

The castle was built into sloping hills, with staggered towers posted at the highest elevation points and a rambling limestone wall several hundred feet tall and walkway that surrounded the entirety of the complex and connected each tower. Within the walls, he could make out a sea of thatched roofing, and a riot of rainbow blossoms woven into trellis-sheltered markets. Walse Castle had been staggering in height and water-carved, modern elegance, but Tycoon was a sprawling hub of activity that looked as if it had been directly lifted from a fairy tale and dropped in the middle of an ancient forest. Hiryu took a sharp turn left and began to make his descent, soaring toward a massive parapet staggering above the central keep.

"The village is in the castle bounds?" Galuf asked, and Lenna nodded, glancing back at the three of them.

"That's right! We do have some countrymen who live outside the wall, but most everyone lives within a stone's throw of the great keep. Otherwise, the nearest village, as you know, is Tule."

"Hey, we're a thrivin' community back at the hideout," Faris huffed. "Those are your people too, you know."

"Well, perhaps once your pirates start paying taxes and stop looting the high lords, we can talk about being more, erm, inclusive," Lenna raised an eyebrow. "Speaking of which, shouldn't you be deciding on a disguise…and quickly?"

She was right – they were quickly approaching the keep, and it became obvious that Hiryu was looking to land on the sprawling terrace that was drifting ever closer. Faris shrugged, reaching under her cloak to touch the crystal shard, and silently transformed into a black mage. With her billowing navy robes, floppy straw hat, and oversized collar that hid half her face, it was as good as a disguise as she was going to get.

"Maybe you should change into something more…feminine," Galuf tittered. "Captain Faris is a man, after all. What better disguise is there than your own…blessings?"

"Not another word, unless you want the last thing you ever see before you become bug splatter on Tycoon's roof to be my fist planted in your face," Faris growled. "In case something short-circuited in that dead space between your ears, I'll remind you that I've already met the chancellor as a man in the Wind Shrine. It would draw even more attention upon me if I were to suddenly show up as a buxom lass."

"I'm so glad we've got all that straightened out," Lenna muttered between clenched teeth.

Bartz elbowed Galuf in the gut, leaning over Faris's shoulder to talk under her giant hat. "Speaking of Chancellor Louis, will you be meeting with him first, Lenna?"

"Yes, right away," Lenna nodded. "There's much for us to discuss, and we're working on borrowed time – the gods only know when the Crystal of Fire in Karnak will shatter, too…"

Once they had safely landed on the terrace, Bartz expected the four of them to be swarmed by Tycoon soldiers, but nobody came, save for a maid who nearly dropped her basket of soiled polishing rags when they ran into her in the adjoining hall.

"Princess Lenna!" she blinked, wondering if she had been working in the sun for too long and was hallucinating. "My word, I thought you were away to assist your father?"

"I've made a quick trip home," Lenna smiled, easily slipping into the obvious lie being presented before her. "These are my friends who have been accompanying me. Pray tell, is Chancellor Louis available to see me?"

The maid could barely pretend to show any interest in the others, briefly glancing at them before turning back to Lenna. "Y-Yes, your highness – of course he's available for _you_." She did an about-face and ran off, shrieking for the chancellor the moment she turned the corner and disappeared. Lenna laughed nervously, pressing her hand to her cheek.

"I just remembered that I sort of ignored Louis's wishes when we got the key to the Torna Canal from Zok. That's…going to make this a little more awkward, isn't it?"

"It will be fine," Galuf assured her. "He was probably too busy being worried sick to be angry with you."

"W-What!?" Lenna cried, her eyes doubling in size at the thought of causing even more trouble for the poor man. "N-No! I never meant to…"

As Lenna was hyperventilating and Faris was giving Galuf a rather unlady-like telling off, with Bartz wondering if it was too late for him to hijack Hiryu and hide in the pirates' cove until everything blew over, Chancellor Louis entered the hall, his hands pressed together as if he were in mid-prayer. As soon as his gaze fell upon Lenna, it was like the entire hall had been drenched in a divine burst of sunlight – his smile stretched to the lobes of his ears, and the soles of his slippers became a blur as he dashed forward.

"Princess Lenna!"

Lenna sniffled and covered her face, wailing – she was utterly oblivious to the whirlwind of emotions exploding around her. "Waah, forgive me... I didn't mean to worry you!"

Louis skidded to a halt before her, shaking his head. "Oh child, why are you crying? No need to fret about that now."

"R-Really?" Lenna choked, peeking between her fingers. "You're not angry with me for disobeying you? Zok told me you visited him after the incident at the Wind Shrine…you wanted me to come home, didn't you?"

"Of course, I wanted you to come home," Louis sighed. "The world in its current state is no place for the treasured daughter of His Majesty. But now that I can see with my very own eyes that you are safe and sound…you _must_ make your return to the castle permanent!"

"Has something happened?" Lenna gulped.

"Everything has fallen to chaos since your father's disappearance, your highness. After the wind crystal shattered, monsters in the region have been more aggressive than ever – and droves of them have been chased away from the southern forests toward us thanks to that damnable meteorite. Our guard has been severely weakened by the monster raids, though we are still managing to put up a fight."

"Father's troops…" Lenna crossed her arms, lowering her gaze. In Tycoon, the reigning monarch also acted as their army's commander, and Lenna knew her father especially relished his duties, being that he had served in Tycoon's military until the day he had married her mother. Many of the men he had served with that he now led were also childhood friends, some of them as close to him as blood brothers. "…Do they…do they realize what has happened?"

She had a feeling about what the answer was going to be based on the maid's reaction to her return, but she wanted to hear it for herself.

Louis lowered his head. "We've tried to keep the news from getting out to salvage what little morale we have left – only a handful of courtiers know the truth of the matter, Jenica among them. It seemed too much to announce that the His Majesty up and disappeared along with the crystal shattering – and when you went after him, we realized there was nothing we could say that would give the people any comfort. To explain your absence, it was circulated among those who asked that you had gone to assist your father at the wind shrine. For now, we're just trying to keep things as normal as possible."

Bartz wanted to ask who Jenica was. Instead, he kept his gaze on Lenna, mentally willing her to look up at him and realize that as ominous the words sounded that were coming out of Louis's mouth, everything _would_ eventually be OK. Her eyes were glazed over with ever-darkening shadows as she absorbed everything Louis was saying. When he finished, Louis stepped forward, gently prying one of Lenna's hands from her folded arms and grasping it within his own.

"I do not tell you any of this to burden your heart, your highness. I can only imagine the trials you've faced thus far, and I can see in your eyes that not many of them have ended amicably. If you stay here – and your friends are welcome too, of course – there is much good you could do for your people just by being a _present_ figure they can turn to in these uncertain times. Eventually, rumors of the crystal's demise – and your father's disappearance – will reach our shores. When that happens…you will need to prepare for the possibility that the throne may become yours. There is no way we can recover without our princess…you are all we have left."

"Chancellor Louis…" Lenna bit her lip, squeezing his fingers. "Forgive me…I've been acting selfish these past few days, haven't I?"

 _Lenna!_ Bartz tried to catch her gaze again, pushing his sweaty palms into his pockets in an effort to not look as twitchy as he felt. _Please…you can't leave us now. We need you…we need all four warriors of light if we have any hope of saving the remaining crystals!_ He turned to Faris and Galuf, who both looked as if someone had just dumped ice water down their backsides.

Louis pressed on, confident that he had finally swayed her. "I will do whatever is needed to lessen your burdens here at home, your highness. Just give me the order, and it shall be done."

Lenna nodded and squeezed his hand again. "If you speak truly, then I…"

"L-Lenna!" Bartz half-whispered, his pulse roaring in his ears. Was this really happening? "Please…"

"I'm…I'm sorry," Lenna sniffed, releasing Louis's hand as she stared up at Bartz, her eyes watering. "I simply cannot stay in Tycoon." Bartz found himself slumping against the cold, brick wall behind him, his legs transformed to jelly. Louis peered at Lenna, shaking his head.

"Princess, you have a responsibility to this kingdom! You can't possibly think that leaving again is the best course of action?"

She pursed her lips, blinking the shadows out of her gaze. "I realize I have a responsibility to Tycoon – the kingdom's lifeblood flows through my veins, after all. But more importantly…I have a responsibility to the _world_. Even as we speak, we are all in grave danger if we cannot protect the final two crystals. What's more... I know in my heart that Father is still alive."

Louis blinked, and Lenna stepped forward, pressing her hand to her heart. "I'll be the one who brings him back home – but I need you to hold things together here until that day comes."

Louis closed his eyes, massaging his temples with a long sigh that deflated his chest. "...I understand. Princess Lenna, we will do everything to protect the kingdom in your stead, I swear it. But for now, will you at least stay the night? You didn't stop by just to say hello, I suppose."

Lenna nodded. "I think we could spare a night. We have much to investigate while we're here…not all of it good, I'm afraid."

She explained everything that had happened to them thus far, including Hiryu's mysterious injuries when he was found on North Mountain and the demise of the Crystal of Water. By the time she was finished, Louis was stroking his beard and staring at his shoes, deep in thought.

"I…I see. So now you're stranded, unless we can heal Hiryu or find you another route to Karnak."

"Correct."

"I'll fetch the court beastmaster to examine Hiryu right away," Louis offered. "He'll be the next best person to help diagnose his ills with your father away."

"Let me assist," Faris suddenly cut in. "A second pair of hands is always useful with a drake – and I've got plenty of experience with their temperaments."

Louis, knowing better than to speak for Lenna in regard to her four-legged family members, pursed his lips in deference. She immediately nodded, resting her hand on Faris's shoulder. The delicate stroke of her fingers conveyed everything she wanted to say, but couldn't bring herself to breathe out loud: That she was eternally grateful Faris was trying to do everything for Hiryu that none of them could do for sweet Syldra.

"And as for the answers you seek about the crystals, and the machines that are allegedly shattering them…" Louis continued to idly stroke his beard. "Your scholars have been hard at work, Princess – they haven't surfaced from the family archives since we returned home from the Wind Shrine. It would be best to ask them your questions directly."

"Then that is what we shall do." Lenna turned to Bartz and Galuf, her determined gaze softening. "Will you two accompany me? I understand if you prefer not to…if it turns out Tycoon has played a bigger role than we thought in bringing about the crystals' destruction…I…I won't know how to begin apologizing for dragging all of you into this…"

 _And of course, Syldra too…poor Syldra, whom I'll never be able to apologize to again!_

"Where else are we gonna go, kiddo?" Galuf grinned. "Stop that nonsense right this instant."

Bartz nodded, his steel-tinged gaze focused so intensely upon her own that she couldn't help but notice her heart skipping a beat – or two. "Lenna, this is our world, too. When we accepted the crystals' powers…we accepted everything that came along with them, even the bitterest of truths. We said we were going to do this together – nothing we learn today, or tomorrow, or _ever_ , is going to change that."

"Princess Lenna, if I may," Louis folded his hands together, his mustache crinkled beneath his sloping nose. "I admittedly had my concerns about the strangers you chose to embark upon this – expedition – with…" Was it just Faris's paranoia, or did his stare fall upon her for a beat longer than necessary? "…But now I have no doubt in my mind that when you leave us again, you'll not be in better hands. These men have become your brothers in arms, and their devotion to you rivals that of your most loyal subjects. Do not cast shadows where none lay because of your own insecurities. You are a Highwind and a Tycoon – it's time you start acting like it."

Lenna sucked in her breath, her fingers twitching against her thighs as she took a few steps back and suddenly plunged herself into a deep bow, her wind-strewn hair messily clinging to her face as she stifled a broken sob.

"T-Thank you…all of you. You're right, Chancellor…the blood of the warrior dragoons and the ancient tribes who worshipped and protected the planet's winds runs through my veins…and now along with it, the last motes of the crystals' light. I shall not doubt my heart, nor the hearts of my fellow light warriors – never again."

* * *

To be continued...


End file.
